Future Echoes
by Tabi
Summary: Spoilers for the anime~. It's Tabi's take on what Marron and Gateau got up to during eps 25/26 ^~
1. The Meeting

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Sorcerer Hunters

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Future Echoes

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~1~

"So, what's YOUR name?"

Marron Glacé had been putting his books from last lesson into his locker when he'd heard the voice. He stopped, finished putting his books down, retrieved the books he needed for the afternoon, then decided to pull his head out of his locker and see if who was speaking, was speaking to him.

He was met on the other side of the locker door by a well-built man, about his age- no, older. Blonde hair, blue eyes, leather jacket, friendly smile, folders and books tucked under one arm, the other arm leant against the row of lockers, ruffled into his hair. Marron stared at him for a few moments; the man's smile increased a little.

"You have one, right?"

"Uh? Oh, M-Marron Glacé. My name's Marron Glacé."

"Marron, huh? Pretty name for a pretty guy... I'm Gateau. Gateau Mocha. How about you let me buy you lunch?"

Marron smiled slightly wearily, locking his locker and slipping his keychain into his pocket. He got this on a near daily basis, though it was usually from girls. He was often mistaken for a girl himself, though by now, most of the guys in Marron's year knew about the boy's unusual femininity. Some had learnt through word of mouth, some had learnt the hard way. "Hey, pretty lady, have a date with me!"... "Lady?"... "Erk!"... once this had been established, it was as if a floodgate had been opened to the female population. They'd tried everything. Loud, bolshy types had gone up to him and demanded things from him; a date, a kiss, a hug, declaration of love... the quieter types would approach shyly, talk quietly of deep feelings that simmered within their bodies, talk of assurances of similar personalities and similar needs even though they didn't know each other, talk of a need to be close to the quiet young male... sometimes he'd get those love-predictions from magazines quoted at him. "What Star Sign are you?"... "Taurus"... "TAURUS! You wouldn't believe this, but we're a perfect match!"... it was either those, or those blood-type love prediction things. No matter the situation or the admirer, he tried to handle things tactfully. Dates were declined, kisses were not freely distributed, the same with hugs. "I don't even know who you are" usually followed, this would be then followed by either an enthusiastic introduction, or a teary "but I've sat three seats diagonally away from you in your class for the past year and a half! Are you sure you don't know who I am?". Some girls gave up at Marron's careful rejection, some girls didn't; he had lunch in the college canteen, and there would always be at least five girls hiding in various places in the dinner hall waiting for Marron to sit down with lunch, so they could suddenly appear, "Is this seat taken?"... "No"... "Can I sit here?"... "I'm not stopping you"... "Thanks! So, wanna have my phone number? Email address? Measurements?"... Marron always brought along a book for this eventuality. Most times he wouldn't be reading it, but a vaguely stern glare followed by a comment on his concentration being disturbed hushed the girls into enough silence to let him eat in peace. It felt harsh sometimes, but it was either that, or never get to eat. According to these unfortunate girls, Marron was the quietest most studious boy in the year; some gave up and went off to their loud showy playboy boyfriends, some still tried things, no-one succeeded. Marron was too used in his daily routine to be disturbed now.

People of the male description were a slightly different matter. Marron had had his fair share of male admirers too, though not as many as his female followers. The guys were always easier to sway away than the girls; in some respects, they were the same. There were the loud guys, "SO! How'ja feel about being my bitch tonight?" who got harshly rejected, and the quiet guys, who would be listened to, smiled softly at (that always set their pulses racing), smiled sadly at, and told that, unfortunately, Marron just didn't feel that way about men. Some would accept this, some would stand there, "B-but... you're so pretty!"... Marron would then gently ask what his physical appearance had to do with his sexuality, then they sadly agreed that there was not much of a connection, and go off.

This man was a new one, though. Marron couldn't recall seeing him around the campus, but then again, it was a big college. Marron wasn't about to change today, though.

"I can buy my own lunch, thank you."

"Yeah, but... if I paid for ya, that'd be money you could spend on other things... c'mon, what'd it hurt?"

A group of girls walked by. Some yelled Marron's name, some blew kisses, Marron jerked a thumb in the direction of their receding figures. "People like those girls, would want me dead."

"What, 'cause ya had lunch with a guy? Not everything's about sex and dating, Marron." Gateau turned Marron around in the direction of the canteen and pushed him along until his legs complied. "C'mon, I've seen you around this place almost every day, yer always alone and stuff, I know that lot all wanna get into bed with ya, but don't you have any friends?"

"Not really."

What Marron said was true, but hardly a hindrance to him. Anyone who wanted to be friends with him always seemed to want more from him; out of all of his admirers, not one had come up to Marron, "I love you, but I'd be perfectly happy with being just friends", and since many girls got attacked by their counterparts for just talking to the attractive young man, many girls didn't bother; with Marron, it was all or nothing. As for friends of his own gender... much as he disapproved of it, if a boy was caught just talking to Marron, rumors about both Marron and the other boy would be rife around school before they could be stopped. And the types that started these rumors anyway were certainly not Marron's type, for friendship or anything else. The kind who were loud and disruptive in classes... the kind who's idea of a good weekend was getting pissed and/or stoned out of their heads on friday night and not having any recollection of what happened between there and monday morning. Whatever they did was their own business, but Marron preferred the idea of being able to remember what his days were spent doing, even if they did all seem to melt into one after a while...

Gateau's hands left Marron's shoulders at that point, but Marron didn't feel like walking away just yet; this Gateau was a little strange to Marron, but for the moment, he seemed harmless. Innocent until proven guilty. Gateau looked a little disbelieving.

"What, really? Who do you hang around with and stuff?"

"You answered your own question earlier. You said you always saw me alone... most of the times, I am. When I'm not alone, I'm trying to fight amorous classmates away. Between that and studying, I don't have much time for... no, that's not it. I'm just not interested... but it's not that either."

Marron smiled.

"I'm sorry, I'm not making a lot of sense."

Gateau laughed, clapping Marron's shoulder into the hold of his sizeable palm. Marron blinked at him, looking around slightly as Gateau laughed. "What's funny?"

"I like you, you're weird. C'mon, have lunch with me. Maybe if I talked with ya a little more, I might get what you're saying about the friendship thing... hey, I know! Why don't we strike up a deal?"

"A deal?"

"Yeah. You have lunch with me, and, if you can _really_ convince me you don't need any friends and you're really happy without 'em, I'll leave ya alone. If you can't convince me, then I wanna become your friend and convince_ you_ that friends are worth having after all. Deal?"

"You're certainly energetic, aren't you?"

Gateau smiled, pulling his fist down, muscles bulged slightly underneath the leather jacket. "Hey, with a body like this, I'd like to think I am. So, is it a deal? I'll keep bugging you till ya say yes, what about that?"

Despite the books under his arm, Marron felt no prior commitment towards his studies. Every day the girls saw him reading, but they weren't to know he only really did it to distract them from pursuing him... Gateau was proving himself stranger to Marron as time went on, but, despite his insistence, he didn't seem to be a threat. Not in the way that Marron usually coped with, anyway. This guy seemed hellbent on becoming friends as much as the others were hellbent on dating... Marron blinked at Gateau, his smile becoming a little warmer.

"I suppose there's no harm in friendship. Alright, I'll take you up on your offer."

"Cool! Hey, and if any of those weirdo killer stalker girls comes up to ya and tries anything, I'll-" Gateau cracked his knuckles. "- sort 'em out."

"That won't be necessary, Gateau."

"Oh, no, I don't mean... you think I'm that brutal? Nah, but don't feel you haveta defend your actions just 'cause of me. If they come up to us and ask us what we're doing, I'll tell 'em! We're having lunch together, 'cause we're friends. And if they can't handle that... well, that's their problem."

"... How do you know they stalk me?"

The two of them started walking to the canteen, Marron's comment opening the path for easy conversation to wander around. Gateau laughed, holding his hands behind his head.

"Hey, I've seen how they look at you, how they act with ya. You're pretty, they know that, you know that too, right? You've probably broken quite a few hearts without even realizing it, Marron... Glacé, was it? Yeah. Anyway... yeah... teenage girls can get quite hyped up sometimes, once they get their minds caught on something, they're not gonna wanna let it go. Even as we speak, there'll be girls out there plotting how to make you theirs forever... it's college, it's life, it's love, it's the way of things, ya know?"

By this point, Gateau and Marron were in the dinner queue. Gateau trailed to a stop, leaving his somewhat rhetorical question hanging in the air as he glanced the menu. He smiled at Marron.

"Whaddaya want? S'my treat, so don't feel you need to hold back 'cause of me, I'm happy enough I managed to break through and talk to you. Order whatever ya want."

So Marron did.

Lunch in hand, the two of them found an empty table, and sat down. Marron set his books down on the table, Gateau slipped his bag off his back and put his books into there. He looked at Marron's books on the table, then at Marron.

"Why don't ya put yer books into a bag or something? Makes them easier to carry around."

"Oh, I never have that much to carry around anyway. I keep the books I'm not using in my locker."

"I see... sensible. I like to keep all my books for the day with me all the time, then I can be sure I've not forgotten anything. There's always at least one person per day who always goes and leaves something in their locker and has to go off and get it... I dunno, you're probably more organized, anyway. The right studious student, right?"

Marron laughed and took a mouthful of drink. He set his drink down on the table, leaning back in his seat a little.

"Oh, I couldn't sit here and say I'd never left a book in my locker before, that'd be a lie. I just feel sorry for those who have a locker so far away from their lessons, so when they forget something, they miss that much of the lesson just going back for equipment..."

"Yeah, then it's the eternal question... 'get my books' or 'get the lesson down on paper and copy up later', both is extra work..."

"I know..."

The conversation continued on in that vein. The conversation went from the dinner hall to the campus grounds and covered general topics; Gateau and Marron discovered that their situations were similar; given the chance to make their own way in the world, both had their own apartments... that, and the particular college the two went to wasn't one to offer student housing anyway. Gateau paid for his apartment through various jobs, Marron currently relied on parental income. The job comment had led onto age comparison; Gateau was two years Marron's elder, which was, Marron decided, perhaps why he'd never seen Gateau around the college. Gateau had actually seen Marron around every day for the past few months, but had never said anything, never known what to say. Marron had shot a shifty smile at Gateau, "That sounds like a proposition to my ears"... Gateau had admitted that perhaps it'd felt like that at one time, but it'd turned into more than that.

"Obviously, it was those looks of yours that made me notice you in the first place, but... I dunno. I've seen you handle all those other guys - and girls - over time... and as I said, you're always alone. I'm not saying I wouldn't sleep with you, but I wouldn't wanna force it on you like those others. If friendship is all I can get from you, then I'm genuinely happy with that."

Marron had, strangely enough, blushed at that. He rarely blushed. He was used to the attempted flirting and loud comments and bawdy classroom talk and offers from classmates that went from the lewd to the downright disgusting, but... those situations had never been like this before. Gateau was so much older than him, in school terms, anyway. He was that bit older than Marron, but he admitted his feelings so freely... okay, so he hadn't said "I love you" like those others always did, but even if Gateau had said that, it probably wouldn't have shaken Marron like his actual words did. He knew the girls in his classes often got crushes on older men... and here he was, with one of those older men, who seemed to have a crush on him. Well, well.

The two sat on the campus playing field, open for general milling around at lunchtimes. Gateau was resting on his back, staring up at clouds as they scudded past, backed by a bright blue sky. The sun shone; it was a nice day. Marron sat alongside Gateau, his hands behind him, keeping him sitting up... he felt relaxed for having spent the lunchtime with Gateau, but something was still bothering him, even if only slightly.

"Gateau... I know... you're all on about friendship and things, but... well... I..."

"You don't believe I wanna stop there, do you?"

"... basically. I mean, it's not that I don't believe you, b-"

"No, it IS that you don't believe me." Gateau sighed, closing his eyes. "But that's okay. If you don't believe I wanna stop with friendship, believe that I honestly wanna win your trust, instead. 'Cause _that's true. I meant what I said earlier, I'm seriously happy with your friendship!"_

Marron frowned slightly. There was nothing to say he couldn't trust Gateau... but it almost felt as if something inside of him _wouldn't_. Frustrated at his own feelings as well as not being able to understand Gateau's, he nodded.

"I... see. I don't know if it's been extended exposure to those silly girls from my year, but... I don't know. Somehow, when someone says something like that, I can't believe it."

"Because everyone else says something different? Don't call those girls silly, Marron. They're only doing what they think is best when it comes to their feelings... they can't help it if nothing they can do can break through that shell of yours."

"Shell?"

"You gotta be hiding behind something if you're not gonna let anyone get close to you... you're only sitting here with me now 'cause I promise not to try to get into your pants the first opportunity I get... that's gotta at least be a type of shell."

"Doesn't it occur that maybe I'm..."

Marron trailed off. Gateau opened his eyes, turning his head, smiling. "You're what?"

Marron looked quietly distant. "One of the guys in my class once said that, since I had most of the girls in the year after me, I should just sleep with them all. 'They're up for it, what's to stop you?', he said. It just annoyed me. Can people really be that callous? I know I hurt those girls by rejecting them, but... it's for their own good! It'd only hurt them more if I slept with anyone who asked."

Marron looked down at Gateau, a sadly self-righteous look in his eyes. Gateau just watched Marron for a few moments, staring into his eyes. Marron blinked and looked away, "Sorry, I said something strange to you."

Gateau smiled gently.

"No need to apologize, you're just sensitive, that's not a bad thing." He closed his eyes again, smiling warmly. "Cause you don't know any of the other guys, then you probably never really realised, but... more people feel like you than you'd think."

"You wouldn't know it from them bragging around school about their latest sexual conquests..."

"A lot of the time, that's all it is, Marron. Bragging. People thinking people'll think more of them depending on how many people they've stuffed it into."

Marron was just quiet while Gateau continued.

"I was in your year once, it was like that then," he shrugged, "they're like that now, in my year now and your year both. But even if you DID try to increase yer popularity that way, there'd always be a faction who'd think of you as nothing more than a little slut..."

Gateau pulled himself up into a sitting position, smiling at Marron as brightly as when they'd first met.

"I prefer the sensitive Marron..."

Gateau reached out and swept Marron's hair back a little, brushing against his cheek.

"... right?"

Marron's head pulled back, staring at Gateau with vaguely blushing apprehension.

"G-Gateau, I..."

Gateau paused, bringing his hand down slowly. Then two of them just stared at each other for a few long seconds, Marron wondering if his blush was too visible... he wondered, for a second, how Gateau'd react. Would Gateau be angry? Marron felt relief as Gateau just smiled softly.

"Just trying to be friendly."

"U... un..."

An uncertain second, then the mood broke as Gateau glanced at his watch out of the corner of his eye.

"Oooh, crap, I'm late for basketball practice." He stood up, Marron stood up too, still a little shaken by what'd almost happened... whatever _that was._

"Basketball?" Marron feigned casual interest. "You're on the basketball team?"

Gateau laughed, hefting his bag over his shoulder, stopping for a moment to smile at Marron. "Well, YEAH... you should come watch me sometime, I'm not bad... well, I really gotta go now. I'll catch ya tomorrow, though... if you want me to?"

The thought hadn't occurred that perhaps Gateau might not want to see Marron again, and Marron had forgotten his initial uncertainty over the lunchbreak.

"O-of course!"

Marron was about to defend himself, but Gateau was already walking away.

"Until tomorrow, then!"

Marron watched Gateau as he walked away, "Tomorrow..." whispered across Marron's lips...

Somewhere in school, bells rang. The familiar sound reminded Marron that he too had places to be, with classes to go to, and he hurried off to his formroom for afternoon registration.

Marron walked into the formroom to the usual screams of his fangirls. As usual, he ignored them... but inside Marron, something was a little less usual. Today, his thoughts resided with Gateau. Gateau confused him; Gateau was so insistent, but unlike the others, Gateau was so insistent on Marron's friendship... his friendship. Every other person wanted more from him, but Gateau... Gateau was attracted to Marron, but recognized Marron's limitations...

Marron just stared at some point up against the wall near the ceiling.

It seemed suddenly strange to him to be back in a classroom with all of the usual people. That lunchtime had been... quite enjoyable. Talking to someone who listened, who actually listened to Marron's point of view... Marron sighed slightly. Suddenly, the prospect of afternoon classes didn't seem so appealing. Marron idly wondered what lessons he had next... he didn't even have to check his timetable, though. One of the girls leapt up to him, "MARRON!!! We've got lit studies next!! But, but, I left my book at home, can I, um, share yours?"

Marron blinked at the girl. "I suppose..."

No harm in sharing equipment, after all. The girl was quite excitable, running back to her desk, squealing about how he'd said yes, Marron'd said yes to her, she was going to share a book with him next lesson, that meant that she'd sit next to him, that meant they'd be sitting together... Marron just lightly rolled his eyes, turning his eyes back to the front of the room. Some things never changed. Some things did... the form tutor called Marron's name, he answered. He checked up at the clock on the wall, about five minutes of the registration period left. He checked over his books one last time, making sure he had the right ones for the afternoon... he did. He also still had his lunch money... he took it out of his pocket and put it into one of the smaller pockets of his bag. It'd been nice of Gateau to get him lunch, even if he _had been unsure at first..._

The bell for afternoon classes went, and people started leaving the classroom. Marron quietly put his coat on, and slipped his bag's straps over his shoulders. He left the classroom, mentally working out the quickest way to get to his next class... the girl from before bounded up to him.

"Ummm, Marron?"

"Yes?"

"Is it okay, um, if, um, I, um, walk with you to, um, the lit room? Since, uh, we have it together, and everything... if it's, um, okay..."

Marron glanced at the girl with distanced amusement. She was so nervous... Marron felt the twinges of a good mood, and couldn't help a light comment.

"Am I really that scary?"

"... what?!"

"You sound so nervous. It's the same route either way, I can't stop you walking the way I'm walking too."

The girl blushed, looking down slightly.

"Y-yes... oh, um, thanks for letting me share a book with you... you must think I'm stupid, um, forgetting my book like that... didn't realise we had lit until my friend told me... turned out I'd been looking at the wrong day on my timetable... ha ha, isn't that stupid?"

"We all do it at some point." The thought crossed Marron's mind; the girl seemed serious enough, but there was always the chance... Marron thought, he wouldn't be surprised if the girl had purposefully left her book someplace in order to share with him. Besides, he wasn't the only person in that class, why didn't she ask someone else... but that wouldn't happen, would it? Why ask someone else when Marron was available to be asked?

The two of them left their home department, leaving amongst the usual afternoon crowds of people going to classes. Some people filtered off to their own various classes, the girl still stayed alongside Marron. She was still blushing, she seemed too nervous to say anything, and Marron couldn't really think of much to say to her in the first place. She looked up, glancing at Marron, then at something else.

"Oh, wow!!" She sounded excited.

"Hm?"

She pointed, past Marron's line of sight. "Look, it's the basketball team practising!!"... she giggled. "I wonder who's playing today? The guys on the basketball team... hee..." another giggle. "Loads of my friends _like the guys on the basketball team."_

"Really?"

"Yeah... one of my friends cut classes one time just so she could watch 'em. She got caught, though... she kinda got into trouble. But I kinda don't blame her, I mean, well, it IS fun to watch, all the guys running about and throwing the ball and stuff..."

"Well, if that's the kind of thing you're interested in..."

"The guys on the sports teams are nice... ha ha, but there are other people I like... ha ha..."

The girl looked away slightly. Marron sounded a little resigned, "I see."

Marron kept his eye out all the same as the two of them walked past the basketball courts. Not that he could really see anything; a small crowd of people blocked vision between the path and the courts... he could hear the repeated impact of the ball against the floor, and feminine squealings... most of the people in the crowd seemed to be girls. No surprises there. His ear pricked with recognition as he was sure he heard Gateau's name squealed... still, he was an older member of the college, it was likely he'd get girls crushing on him. And being in the basketball team... the thought occurred to Marron before he could stop it, 'Maybe it'd be interesting to see what they're doing...', then he wondered why he'd thought it.

He wondered why he was thinking of Gateau so much; he hadn't thought of much else since lunchtime, and it was starting to worry him, in a way. He couldn't stop thinking of Gateau... what did THAT mean?  
Marron placated himself, thinking about what exactly Gateau was, anyway. Gateau was a friend... an interesting friend, but a friend. First person Marron could really remember who'd acted like that, who hadn't minded Marron's behaviour, who understood it, who was willing to count down his own feelings in order to make Marron comfortable...

Gateau was a friend. A new friend. Of course Marron was going to think of him - their meeting had seemed altogether too brief. Still, there was the promise of tomorrow... but today seemed to drag by so much...

Eventually, Marron reached his literature class, and, as expected, sat next to the girl. They shared the textbook, no problem. The class seemed to drag, as did the one after that, but once the bell at the end of that class rang, Marron felt relief; time to go home.

Marron took a visit to his locker after school, picking up the books he needed for his homework. He couldn't help but smile a little as he approached his locker; earlier, this was where he'd met Gateau... still, there were other matters to think about now. Just because he'd made a friend didn't mean that there wasn't still homework and coursework to hand in... he had to stay focused.

A noise distracted Marron enough to realise that he probably wouldn't be able to stay focused for long.

"Oh, Marron! Yo!"

Marron looked up curiously.

"Gateau?"

Gateau had been walking past the locker section when he'd seen Marron. At Marron's recognition, he smiled, jogging over. He looked slightly worn out, and he was still wearing his basketball clothes. Gateau smiled and nodded. "Yeah... ya remembered me, then?"

"I wouldn't forget. You... just got finished doing your basketball practice?"

"Yeah... it was pretty good, just practicin' and stuff, but it's good stuff. Kinda distractin' at times, though. Wherever there's a sport, there's always crowds of girls hanging around..."

"I know, I saw them when I was on the way to my afternoon classes."

"Oh yeah?" Gateau grinned, repositioning his bag on his back. "Ya see me anywhere?"

"No... I couldn't see anything, there were too many people in front of the basketball courts. I heard them screaming your name, though... the girl I was walking with said about how her friends had crushes on guys on the sports teams... I wonder if..."

Marron trailed off slightly. 'I wonder if any of them have crushes on you?' sounded wrong to his ears somehow. Gateau just smiled, leaning himself against the lockers, next to Marron's open one.

"You were talking to a girl?"

"Oh, she just wanted to know if she could share my textbook in class... she'd left hers at home, or something... it doesn't hurt to be civil, so I let her... she then walked to the lesson with me."

"I see... well, cool. Hey, since I've found ya and everything, wanna hang out a bit? Ain't got any afterschool things going on, have you?"

"N-no... I had homework, though..."

"Oh, okay. Hey, but it wouldn't be for long, though... well, if ya got work to do, I guess ya gotta do it. I gotta go out tonight anyway. Hey, why don't I walk ya home?"

"You don't know where I live."

"No, but it'd be nice to find out."

Marron pulled the last of his books out of his locker, depositing them into his bag. He watched Gateau almost curiously; Gateau really _did want to spend time with Marron... Marron felt strange, because he wanted to spend time with Gateau too..._

"I wouldn't want to inconvenience you..."

"It's no inconvenience, ya walk into school, don't ya? Can't be that far if ya walk."

So Marron had company on the way home that night; the two found that, to their bemused amusement, that they only lived a few roads from each other. Marron was a little surprised to find out that Gateau's apartment was a two-bedroomed one; Gateau said his family had practically insisted on it, Gateau often had relatives visiting who were keen on him. The Mocha family lived out of town, and it was easier for relatives to visit Gateau directly, in most cases, than for Gateau to visit them. His relatives had a car or two; Gateau didn't. Marron had smiled at that, "But don't most people want a car, once they get to your age?"... "Marron, wanting something and getting it are two different things... I'm still a student, I'm not earning _that much!"... but for the most part, Gateau was happy in his apartment. Marron admitted to his being... almost a little depressing._

"It's alright when I'm at school, when I'm quiet around everyone else... but when I get home, it's just _quiet_. Sometimes the silence is overbearing."

"I guess it could be like that... hey, ya wanna come to my place for a bit, watch TV or something?"

"I have homework to do, Gateau."

Marron sounded a little cold when he said that, but Gateau just smiled. "Sounds like you would if ya didn't have homework to do. Well, I guess homework can't be helped, and I've got work anyway. So I guess we better go. What time do you set out in the mornings, though? Since we live so close to each other, I might catch ya on the way to school, ya never know."  
Marron had the feeling that, if he told Gateau what time he set out in the mornings, Gateau would make himself meet Marron on the way to school... so Marron told Gateau the time. Why not? Gateau smiled, "I'll remember that!", then went back to his own place; Marron watched him as he went off, and went back to his apartment. There, he locked the door and set out his homework. Not a prospect he relished, but something that had to be done, anyway.

And so the days wore on. Most days were similar, most days melted into the ones before and after like before, but these days were different than days in the past; these days were days with Gateau. Gateau always managed to cheer up Marron's day, even in the smallest way... dull lessons were that bit more bearable, knowing he'd be able to talk with Gateau afterwards. Talking about what was never important; sometimes, whole lunchtimes would come and go where the two of them just talked about nothing, but even talking about nothing was relaxing. Marron bitched about teachers, Gateau bitched about teachers. They compared teacher characteristics, laughing at the stranger ones... they complained to each other about the amount of work that always seemed to be on their shoulders, but the complaining was always happy complaining; it was much nicer to be annoyed about schoolwork when there was someone to be annoyed about it _with_.

Occasionally, the two of them ended up visiting each other's houses. Gateau had just been curious to see where Marron was living, and then had insisted that Marron had to visit his house too. Marron had pulled out some homework to do, with which Gateau had tried to help him with; the two hadn't got too far, but it was nice for someone to care, Marron thought.

Returning home, Marron found something that would eventually work in his favour, even though it didn't seem like it at the time. A letter had arrived for him during the day, a letter from his parents. Apparently, there had been setbacks at work, or something. They hadn't really explained in much detail, the bottom line was, Marron wasn't going to be receiving as much as he had done to this point from them. The next day at school, Marron expressed his worries to Gateau; there were only two options he could think about. There was either getting a part-time job, like Gateau, or moving somewhere else... neither option really appealed to him. Getting a job would have been better if Marron had the first idea of how to approach something like that, but he'd always concentrated more on his schoolwork, figuring that things like that could be thought about later. Moving somewhere else was complicated, and what if he couldn't find somewhere so close to the college? His apartment was perfect in that respect; being close to college was always a bonus.

Marron had first raised the subject on the way to school; in response to this, Gateau had paused, looked serious for a moment, then turned to Marron, "You could move in with me."... Marron had looked at Gateau, then carried on, as if he hadn't heard. The point was next raised at lunchtime.

"... why do these things have to happen... I mean, I suppose I _could get a job... but I'm always occupied with homework, if I had a job as well as all the work I have at the moment... I don't know if I could cope with that, Gateau. I suppose I have to move, but... I don't know how much time I have, I got the letter yesterday, but how much longer are they going to be able to support me like that, or did they just expect me to suddenly adjust? I swear, sometimes, they have no grip on reality..."_

Marron sighed, stabbing viciously at vegetables on his plate. Gateau leaned his head on one fist, smiling softly. "Hey, what did the carrots do to deserve that?"

Marron looked up, slightly confused for a moment, then he looked down at his fork, realising the extent of his miniature food massacre. He sighed. "... sorry. I'm just annoyed... why couldn't they have phoned? Then we could have at least talked about the situation... and surely it would have been quicker... they don't seem to realise how difficult it is, Gateau!"

Gateau finished off his drink, then stared at Marron until Marron noticed; Marron stared back at Gateau for a moment, confused. "W-what?"

"Marron, I was totally serious earlier. If it's gonna be a problem, you could move in with me... I wouldn't mind, it's not like I don't have the room or anything, my relatives'd just have to deal with that. They never seem to visit these days anyway... it'd help if you gave a little to the rent, but it doesn't matter how much, it'd still be less than I pay out at the moment... I mean, if you still wanted to find a place of yer own, sure, you do that, but ya don't have to do that unless you really feel you have to."

Marron just watched Gateau cautiously for a few moments.

Gateau really was serious about having Marron move in with him... Marron looked away slightly.

"Gateau, I couldn't, I mean... y-you and me... living together?"

Gateau leaned over and poked Marron's forehead. Marron looked up at that, noticing Gateau's sardonic glare. "Hey, c'mon. Thought we had that sorted out ages ago. Just 'cause we were gonna be living with each other wouldn't mean that anything was gonna _happen_! I got two bedrooms in that place. One for me and one for you, or did you fail maths or something? Ya get friends sharing apartments and flats and stuff all the time!! Ya always see it on TV, in sitcoms and stuff. They always seem to have so much fun, but that's TV for ya. Weren't you telling me a while back about how your apartment felt kinda quiet and depressing? Well, this could be a solution to that!"

Marron just glanced at Gateau, a little unsure. Gateau sighed, slightly sympathetic.

"Don't think I'm trying to force you into it or anything, though." He shrugged, "Just thought it'd be kinda best for you, that's all. Maybe ya treasure yer independence, though... just think about it, okay? I'm your friend, I wanna be there for ya."

"... I-I know..."

Marron sat back in his seat, quietly thinking about it. Moving in with Gateau... _would help alleviate the problems he'd suddenly been cropped with. Gateau was right, friends shared apartments all the time, didn't they? And after the couple of months or so they'd spent as friends, Marron trusted Gateau not to use this as an opportunity to jump Marron's bones or anything. Gateau was willing, it was a pleasantly unexpected solution to an annoying unexpected problem... there wasn't any reason to say no._

"... Gateau, if I said yes... you're sure it's alright?"

"Sure it's okay! Be nice to have someone to keep me company. Why, is that a yes?"

"..." Marron paused for a moment, going over his options in his head again, before nodding.

"Yes, it is."

Gateau seemed to freeze for a moment, before a slow smile spread over his features. "Marron... I never thought you'd actually say yes..."

Marron half-glared at Gateau. "Oh, so you were lying?"

Gateau waved his hands in defence, "No, no! I just... hey, it doesn't matter, forget it. I'll get onto the phone to the guy later today, I'll phone ya tonight and tell ya when you can move in. Shouldn't be too long... yay, I got me a new roomie!!" Gateau smirked. "We'll haveta have a housewarming party or something. Lotsa alcohol. Strippers. That kinda thing."

"Gateau..."

"Hey, hey, I'm joking, I'm joking!!"

Marron spent the rest of the day in preparation, mental and physical, for his incoming move. As expected, he got a phone call from Gateau, just before he going to bed. Gateau had got caught up at work, nothing special, but he still apologized for phoning so late. Gateau had contacted his landlord and checked it out, Marron could move in as soon as he wanted. So that was okay. It'd been friday when Gateau had called him; Marron spent the weekend sorting things out, packing his things away, and contacting _his_ landlord to say that he'd be moving. Once that was sorted out, Marron phoned Gateau to tell him so. Gateau sounded so happy, but left the phone somewhat abruptly... he then turned up on Marron's doorstep, ready to help Marron move his stuff. Since it was only a short walk away, Gateau reasoned, there wasn't any point in hiring a van or anything. Marron had sighed happily, and let Gateau help him move his stuff over.

So, on that day, a sunday, Marron moved in with Gateau, and life was, generally, good.

Marron sat on the sofa in the front room, flipping through channels on the television. Gateau called over from the kitchen, "Anything on TV?"

Click, click, click, bleep. "Doesn't seem like it."

"Well, it's sunday. Never anything on TV on a sunday." Gateau emerged from the kitchen, leaning against the doorframe, two cans in hand. "Wanta beer?"

Marron looked up, blinking. Gateau waved the can at him, Marron realised, then shook his head. "Oh, no thankyou. I... never really got on with alcohol..."

"Ya sure?"

"Yes. Thanks for offering, though."

Gateau went back into the kitchen. Marron could hear the fridge opening and shutting, then he came back through, holding one can this time, and sat on one of the other chairs in the room.

"Heh, I bet those scary stalker girls in school would freak if they knew we were living together. They'd probably wanna know what I did that they weren't doing..."

"I've already had people in my class ask me about my relationship with you. The guys want to know if Marron and 'that tall prick' from the basketball team are fu- well, you can guess. The girls... some of them... they confuse me. One moment they'll be weepy-eyed over me, then they'll come over all blushing, 'M-Marron, do you know G-Gateau Mocha from, ah, the basketball team? We heard you guys were kinda friends... could you... ask him if he's single? Could you ask him if he'd be interested in me? He's sooooo maasculiiinnneee, I LOVE HIM so could you ask him?'... if only they could make their minds up..."

Gateau just grinned, opening his can. "Heh, so what do you say when they start gushing like that?"

"Oh, I just say 'we'll see' and it seems to satisfy them."

"So how come you never told me about them before? Chicks from your year... hey, if they're cute, they're cute. Anyone I might be interested in?"

Marron looked slightly shocked for a moment. Gateau'd never really expressed interest in anyone like that, not while Marron had known him, except for, well, Marron himself... still, Marron never reacted the way Gateau had wanted him to, and Gateau seemed to respect that... but Gateau was still a normal eighteen-year-old guy with normal eighteen-year-old drives. Maybe Gateau just didn't talk about things like that? Marron shook himself from his thoughts, "Oh, I... I don't know..."

"Never mind, girls like that are usually only interested in making a reputation for themselves, 'oh, look at me, I'm going out with an older guy, whee, lookie!!'... nah, just playing with ya. So... whatcha wanna do? Roomie?"

"Um?"

"Tellyawhat, it's just past six... how about I make us some noodles?" Gateau laughed, a little nervously. "Got cupboards fulla instant noodles, I never seem to have time to cook anything more these days anyway, sorry..."

"Oh, I don't normally eat in the afternoon." Most days, Marron ate his lunch at college and let that last him; cooking would just be a distraction from doing homework, anyway.

"Really? Well, hey, come on. Today's special, aren't you just a bit hungry? Don't know about you, but I'm hungry."

"... well, if you're making some..."

"Just come out and say 'Gateau, make me some noodles', honestly! You're always so polite... though I guess that's a good thing. Just not used to it, that's all."

Marron smiled to himself as Gateau went off to cook. The conversation carried on from the kitchen.

"I gotta tell my parents I got myself a roommate, they're always wantin' to know how I'm getting on out here. What about you? What about your family? Any brothers or sisters or anything?"

Marron shook his head. "No... I'm an only child."

"Yeah? Cool."

Marron didn't know that, in another time, in another life, he did actually have a brother, a brother who was fighting for his life after having to suddenly cope with his little brother's death and a sudden violent reminder thereof... Marron didn't have the slightest inkling of that, of any of it. Marron just leant back on the sofa, his hair draping over the sofa's arm.

"You think so? Sometimes I think it'd be nice to have a brother, or a sister, or someone close like that. People with such close relationships... it's quite heartwarming, but it's the kind of thing I'm only likely to read about. Unless something strange happened, I don't think it'd be possible for my parents to suddenly have a child and have him be around the same age as me..."

"Heh, neither do I. Hey, but don't brothers and sisters also drive each other mad? Nah, we should be glad we don't have siblings or anything. Besides, those relationships you're on about, the close ones... wouldn't it be possible to have friends with that closeness?"

"I suppose, though I'm not sure..."

"What do I have to do to get that kind of closeness from you, then? Tell me, I'll do it." Gateau peeked around the doorframe. "I just want you to be happy, after all."

Marron wasn't sure, so he didn't say anything.

After that, not a lot happened; again, the days rolled in, rolled out. Homework was done, school was attended, Marron did the things he had to do and Gateau ditto; life with each other was a relaxing experience, Gateau didn't disturb Marron when he was working through his endless piles of work, and Marron didn't question Gateau when he came home at strange hours of the day (or night, or early morning). Sometimes Marron wondered what it was that Gateau did until that time, but he never asked, it wasn't any of his business anyway.

However, two incidents happened close enough to each other for Marron to realise afterwards that, perhaps, they might have been linked. One event was a minor event that served to bring his and Gateau's relationship a little closer, whatever _that_ meant at the time, the other was more of a turning-point... the first event which happened a few weeks before the other. It was one of those nights, a friday night, where the clock was ticking, and Gateau still wasn't home. Not that Marron was up waiting for Gateau or anything, homework was best got out of the way at the earliest opportunity, and if it meant staying up until three in the morning working on the latest text he'd been given, well, it was just more work he wouldn't be doing over the rest of the weekend. His bespectacled eyes wandered to the clock on the other side of the room. It had just hit two 'o clock... two in the morning... fridays were always a bit busy for Gateau, though. Basketball practice followed by an extended work shift... Gateau seemed to do all kinds of different jobs, Marron couldn't remember what his friday night job was. But whatever it was, did it really mean that he'd be out until this late? Marron clicked his pen against his chin a few times, curious... a little worried. Yes, Gateau came home late at times, but... what if something had _happened to him?_

Marron remembered Gateau's mobile phone; he started digging for his address book to find it, but at that point, he'd heard the front door go; relief washed over him, and he stood up, taking his reading glasses off. He went through to the front room, but didn't find any sign of Gateau... he frowned slightly, glancing into the hallway. The lights were off... he felt around on the wall, located the lightswitch, and turned the lights on, just for the sake of it. He was about to switch the lights off, when he saw what he'd been looking for, almost unexpectedly; Gateau was sat in the hallway. He looked up when the lights came on, startled.

"M-Marron! What are you doing up at this time?!"  
"Homework. Did you only just get in?"

"Y-yeah."

Silence for a few moments. The two of them just stared at each other. Marron didn't ask the burning question in his mind... it was nothing to do with him, he shouldn't want to know... but he wanted to know... 

Gateau looked away, looking almost... sad. "You wanna know where I was, don't you..."

"N-no, it's none of my business..."

"Hey, you _never_ ask me where I've been... I'm your friend, doesn't that make it your business?" Gateau sighed, a long, shuddering sigh. Marron frowned slightly, something wasn't right here. Something seemed to be upsetting Gateau... Marron had the feeling that Gateau was trying to say 'I want to talk to someone about this' in an indirect Gateau kind of way. Marron walked over to Gateau, and crouched in front of him, a serious look on his face.

"Gateau... there's something wrong... do you want to talk about it?"

Gateau smiled wearily, lifting himself up off the floor, feeling heavy to his arms. "I thought you'd never ask, Marron. C'mon, let's go into the front room, I wanna sit on something soft."

Marron quietly followed Gateau there; they switched the lights on. Gateau sat on the sofa, Marron sat on the chair nearby, facing Gateau. "So... what happened?"

Gateau sighed, looking away. "It's... it's kinda embarrassing... but basically... I was working, until kinda late, and while I was there, there was this girl working there... about my age, y'know. Turns out that she's in my year at college, how about that? Anyway, we were just getting on, chatting, all of that... her shift ended, then after a while, mine did too... we got on well, and when I got outta the place, she was waiting for me, wanted to know if I wanted to go with her for a drink or something."

Ah-ha, Marron thought. Girl problems.

"Carry on..."

"Y-yeah... well, I figured that I might as well, basketball practice had been tiring, work had kinda drained me, figured you'd be asleep by the time I got in anyway, why not? So we did. And it was all fine and good, then we went... she said she'd walk home, I said I'd walk home too, she was like 'why don't we walk home together, then?', this weird tone in her voice... I was like 'well, okay'... then, we were walking through the park, ya know, that park a little off the college grounds... and... uh, well... it was like..." Gateau waved his hands around a little, trying to silently gesture at what he meant. Marron didn't have a clue, so prompted Gateau to continue.

"It was like what?"  
"Marron, she just LEAPT on me! I don't know if she'd had too much to drink or what, but she just leapt on me, 'Gateau, I've liked you for a while, do you like me too?'... I was just like 'Well, sure, but...' I couldn't say anything else though, she was already trying to pull my coat off and stuff... she just _smiled, really creepy, 'So, if we like each other, it doesn't matter, does it? Gateau, I want you...', by then, she had me pinned on the floor... I mean, not pinned as such... well, yeah... I... I didn't really fight her off, though... I could have done, but I didn't..."_

Marron wondered just where this was going.

"... she leant in close, 'Gateau, d'you want me too?'..." Gateau sighed. "I dunno why I said yes, but for whatever reason, I did. I mean-" Gateau noted Marron's expression of subtle shock, "- don't think we actually ended up screwing in the park, 'cause we didn't, but... the reason for that... well, that's kinda the problem... cause... we were kissing and stuff, and she was like, well, um, feeling me up... she had this long hair, like this..." Gateau made a gesture with his hand. "... I think her hair was purple or something. But yeah... it was just... kissing her like that, running my hands through her long, soft hair..."

Marron shifted on the seat slightly, saying nothing. He'd have been lying if he'd have said that this was comfortable listening.

"... then... I... I wrecked it."

"... How?"

"... I said... um... someone else's name..."

Marron blinked. Not that he had personal experience, but... that surely wasn't a good sign.

"Someone else's name?"

"Y-yeah... k-kinda someone else from school... who the girl knew... she just kinda froze, then glared at me... then she slapped me, called me disgusting, called me a pervert, called me all kinds of things... 'How dare you lead me on like that?! If I'd known you were like _that_, I wouldn't have TOUCHED you, you FREAK!!'... damn, it's like, her words are imprinted on my memory..."

"She reacted like that... just because you said someone else's name?"

Gateau looked Marron in the eyes, then looked away. Somehow, he couldn't meet the look in Marron's eyes; not exactly innocent as such, but... Marron was...

Marron was the person who's name Gateau had said. Moaned. Gasped. Repeated.

Gateau wasn't about to tell Marron about that, though. Marron knew that Gateau had said someone else's name except for the one he should be saying; that was enough... just as long as Marron didn't come straight out and ask about it. Gateau wasn't sure he'd be able to pass the truth off convincingly enough...

"... Y-yeah, just cause of that... I mean... I..." Gateau stood up. "... sorry... I just kinda... need to get some sleep, I think... maybe it'll seem better in the morning. I just feel crap right now... sorry for keeping ya up, distracting ya from your homework 'n stuff..."

Marron just shook his head, standing up, stepping over to where Gateau was making his way to his bedroom. He wanted to say something, but Gateau's door was closed before he could say anything. Marron sighed, then went back to the kitchen to get himself some water. That had been the first time Marron'd seen Gateau like that... it'd been strange. It'd also been strange to hear him talking like that... Gateau, almost randomly getting off with girls he'd met at work. Did he do that frequently? For all of his original talk on how it was better to be selective than sleep with everything that threw itself at you, was Gateau like those sexual poseurs in Marron's own year after all? Was that why Gateau never spoke about things like that too much? Was something like that only worth talking about if it went wrong? Marron felt confused. He'd had vague suspicions, but nothing really concrete to think about... but really... what was to stop him? Gateau was the outgoing type, Gateau wasn't bad-looking when it came to that... the girls in Marron's year certainly seemed attracted to him, but outside of schoolgirl crushes, why wouldn't other girls like Gateau too? Why _wouldn't_ he sleep with the girls who offered themselves? No ties, no responsibility, just sex... why not?

Marron presumed it'd be just sex, anyway. Gateau never brought any girls home to say 'hi'.

Marron wondered how he'd feel if that happened. If Gateau came back one day with some pretty girl, 'Hey, Marron! This is my girlfriend! Girlfriend, this is my roommate, Marron Glacé.'... the girl would probably say hello. Marron would say hello back. Then Gateau and the girl might go off, and... do the kinds of things that boyfriends and girlfriends would _do..._

Marron smiled wryly as he poured himself water, and went to the icebox of the fridge for ice cubes. He blamed his mood partly on his current lack of sleep; "_If I didn't know any better" he thought, "_I might almost say I was getting jealous..._"_

Still, the thought of Gateau leading some kind of sexual double-life was a strange one, to Marron. That'd been one of the first things that had convinced Marron of Gateau's worth; his insistence on a non-sexual friendship, a friendship bound purely by friendship, a friendship that didn't involve kissing or touching or holding or being held or being bound to someone in a different way - bound to them while they held back, gasping, panting, moaning, stroking, yielding, helping the other along to an orgasmic climax...

Marron almost dropped his drink. THAT was certainly a different thought. "_I... really need sleep."_

Marron backpedaled his thoughts. He'd always taken Gateau's friendship as a pretty innocent friendship, Gateau's occasional remark aside. Marron could live with that. But while their friendship was innocent... had Marron, somewhere along the line, assumed that Gateau's life was much like his own? Marron's life was homework, schoolwork, college, Gateau. Roughly and in no particular order. Whenever Gateau was with Marron, it was _always _the two of them... just the two of them. Only the two of them. Marron realised that, asides from what'd happened tonight, he didn't really _know Gateau that well. Well, not that he didn't know him as such, more that he didn't know much __about him, he didn't know that one part of him, that other half of him, and Marron didn't know whether to be worried or not. Whenever Gateau went out, it always started off as work, but... who was to say that every friday night did or didn't work out much like that one, but without the mistake?_

Was that side only mentioned to Marron... when it went wrong? If this was the first time Gateau had mentioned it, and that was so, then how many times did it go right?

Marron remembered what seemed like a long time ago, Gateau mentioning that Marron might have a shell that he hid from others in. Marron mused on whether this shell of his now somehow incorporated Gateau... his life was with Gateau, but in that life, there was no unpleasantness... did Marron even want to know what Gateau's other life was like, anyway? Marron downed the rest of his drink, sighed, decided he was getting too introspective, decided that he'd been working on his literature analysis homework for too long, and then made a decision that seemed a lot more inviting, he decided to go to sleep.

Marron went back through to his bedroom, but couldn't help a quick glance in on Gateau before he went to bed. The door was slightly open... he pushed it, it made a creaking sound, but the shadowy figure lying on the bed didn't move, other than in sleep. Marron watched Gateau for a few moments, as if expecting him to suddenly do something... of course, he didn't.

Marron's eyes softened with a slight look of sympathy.

"Gateau Mocha... I really... don't know you at all... do I?"

Marron watched for a second longer, and was satisfied that Gateau was asleep. Marron drew the door to a close, and went back to his own room... Gateau waited until he heard Marron's own door close, then let out a sigh of his own from where he lay, buried deep within his blankets, but not asleep.

"... No, you don't, do you...?"


	2. The Fight at School, and What Happened A...

****

Sorcerer Hunters

***

Future Echoes

**

  
~2~

The next morning, the incident of the night before wasn't mentioned. Gateau seemed much better for having had a night's sleep; he offered to take Marron to the cinema, and, in a state of confusion and bemusement at how someone could change moods so fast, Marron had agreed. They ended up going to the cinema, the restaurant next door, the arcade next door to that, then to the library so Marron could pick up some books he'd had on order. Studies of animation in the late twentieth century. Just what he'd needed for his course.

Neither Gateau nor Marron realised - and Marron wouldn't have known to have realised in the first place - that, to a degree, they were being followed. Occasionally, Marron would be stalked around the college, or around town, by his devoted fangirls. He never paid them much heed. Gateau was likely victim of the same, and he would have had much the same reaction, unless he'd realised just who it was who was following him around on _that_ day. The girl seemed normal enough, casual clothes, about eighteen or so, purple hair down to just beyond her shoulders... had Gateau seen her, he might have realised that she was the girl from the night before. But he didn't, so... he didn't.

Gateau was enjoying his little series of date-like ventures with Marron. Over lunchtime pizza he grinned at Marron, "So, ya ever been on a date before?", Marron had just looked away, Gateau had laughed, "Just joking.", though inside him, he felt that perhaps part of him wasn't; whatever Marron wanted to think, Gateau would count it as a date... it was him, it was Marron, it was them going places slightly out of the ordinary to have a good time, why not count it as a date? If Marron didn't want to think that way, then he didn't have to. Gateau might not have been so energetic about attempting to trounce Marron on the arcade games if he'd noticed the girl standing not too far away; she didn't seem to be doing anything, she didn't really seem to be with anyone, she was just... standing there. Watching Gateau.

Eventually, another girl appeared from somewhere, and said something to the purple-haired girl. The purple-haired girl pointed at Gateau, then slightly reluctantly at Marron. The other girl, who wore square glasses propped to the edge of her nose, gasped slightly, and whispered something to the purple-haired girl. She then looked shocked - she looked from her friend, to Gateau, to Marron, to Gateau, to Marron, to her friend again. Whatever it was her friend had said, it hadn't pleased her too much. They were joined by a third person, a boy with messed-up blonde hair. He tucked his arm around purple-haired girl's arm, but she didn't look too happy. She explained something to the boy, he looked angry... he made a motion as if to head towards Marron and Gateau, but he was stopped by the girl with glasses. She looked at him with a patiently serious look, and he seemed to give up for the moment... and the three of them left the arcade.

Marron and Gateau were blissfully unaware of the exchange that had just taken place there, and wouldn't be aware of it's implications until the second event happened, the event that took place a few weeks after the first. In retrospect, Marron was surprised that it'd taken that long... but sometimes, that's just the speed of the school-college information network.

The event in question was really several events that lead to one eventual outcome. The first event was that the college basketball team had been put forward for a pretty important - important to the sports department, anyway - basketball game. This meant that Gateau was suddenly around even less than he had been after school prior to that, but Marron didn't mind. He even took some pride to his friend being part of this event that seemed to be buzzing around on the lips of most people in school... most of the times, the crowds of people watching the basketball were girls. There was really no difference, except... this time, it was a crowd of mainly girls... and Marron, always standing at the front, near the center, calmly with his hands against the wire mesh of the basketball courts, watching Gateau as he played the game so naturally... Marron never really understood the appeal of team sports until he saw Gateau playing one. Not that he suddenly wanted to sign up for the basketball team or anything, but he could see what all the girls liked about the sport. The guys running around in shorts, how they got all hot and sweaty, and of course, Marron smiled to himself, how much did _that_ leave to the fangirl imagination?... Gateau always noticed when Marron was there to watch him. He'd always come off the courts afterwards, towel around his shoulders, and pat Marron heartily on the back, usually making some kind of flirtatious comment to go with it. Marron, somehow, didn't mind.

With the coming of the sports event, comments to Marron about Gateau increased slightly. "Are you Gateau's friend?"... "Yes"... "Are you... his boyfriend?"... "I'm not."... "Oh, I just heard you were, sorry..."

Marron was used enough to comments like that to not really think much of it. Even when Marron came to his locker one time to find "Marron Glacé takes it hard from Gateau Mocha in the bedroom" written in not so many words in (reasonably) permanent marker pen on there, he didn't feel much in the way of misgivings. Just stupid people being immature, Marron thought with a sigh as he contacted the main office to report the case of graffiti. The graffiti was gone by the morning, fortunately enough. Marron had told Gateau about it, at the time, Gateau had laughed, "Well, whatever they want to think!! Almost a shame it isn't really happening, isn't it?"... "Gateau!!"... "Come on..."... "Just joking?"... "You know me too well.". Gateau might not have laughed if he'd known what the locker thing was a prelude to.

One time, a couple of days before the big basketball event was about to take place, Marron was waiting for Gateau outside of the changing rooms. He milled around absently, kicking at a random stone in the dust, playing with his bag's strap, small things like that to keep him occupied. Eventually, a voice he didn't recognize said "... Hey."

Marron looked up. "Hello?"

The person who'd spoken was someone who seemed like he'd be in one of the older years of the school. His build was somewhat slight, but he had a mean air about him... there was something shrewd and quick about him, too. Something sly. He had messed-up blonde hair that fell over his eyes, he was the boy who'd been angry in the arcade on sunday. He just stared at Marron for a few moments, sitting on the wall near to the changing rooms. Marron watched him, eying him with slight curiosity. "Can I help you?"

"Are you Marron Glacé?" He jumped down from the wall, and leant against it.

Marron nodded slightly hesitantly. "Yes, why?"

"You're friends with that... Mocha guy, aren't you?"

"Yes, friends..." Marron frowned. Was this going to turn into another verbal attack? "... just friends."

"Oh yeah? Well, see, that's not what _I've _heard... and I've heard quite a bit, let me tell you... how about we go on a walk or something, just you and me? And I'll tell you some of the things I've heard about that big boyfriend of yours."

"He isn't my boyfriend. I don't know what you've heard, but-"

"Marron, is this guy giving you trouble?"

Gateau had picked that moment to emerge from the changing rooms, wiping his brow off with his towel, sounding somewhat harsh... he glared the other guy in the eye. Marron looked up at Gateau, shaking his head.

"No, no trouble."

"I was just askin' him something. Quite protective over your pretty little bitch, right, Gateau?"

He started walking past Marron and Gateau, in the direction of the school gates. As he walked past Gateau, he paused for a fraction of a second, "Bet he screams when you give it to him, right?"

Gateau turned round to snarl and perhaps land his fist in the other guy's head, but by that point, he was gone. Gateau frowned, trying to work out where he'd gone.

"Damn... too quick... Marron, who _was _that guy?"

"I'm not sure... he seems too old to be in my year... I thought that perhaps he came from your year. I don't know, I'd not actually seen him before..."

"Spiteful vindictive little bastard... well, let's forget about that and go get some soda or something, I could do with something cold to drink."

Marron nodded. "Yes, that sounds good."

The next time Marron saw the blonde boy again, was on the night of the basketball event.

That morning, Gateau had been bouncier than a boxful of rubber bands thrown from a cliff; he was so sure all the training he'd put in was going to pay off, he was so sure that his team were gonna win, they'd kick the other team's asses so hard they'd be biting the labels off their underpants, or whatever it was Gateau said. Marron just listened with his distanced amusement; he wasn't really listening to what Gateau said, just understanding the gist of the ramblings. It was also the last day of that term, as well as being the day of the basketball event. That way, it gave the losing school the holiday to recover from their defeat, and the winning school the holiday to celebrate and devise ways of kicking even more ass in the future.

The basketball game started at lunch, or preparation for it did, at least, and it went on until sometime after school. Marron promised Gateau he'd be there watching; after the amount of training and effort that Gateau had put in, Marron wouldn't have been able to forgive himself if he _hadn't have gone. So the day went on, Marron not really thinking of anything but the upcoming match... and at early lunchtime, a message had been sent around the school, saying that afternoon lessons had been cancelled in favour of the basketball game. This came as a pleasant surprise to Marron, who wasn't sure he'd have been able to concentrate on his afternoon lessons in any case. After lunch, a quiet non-Gateau lunch, Marron started to make his way down to the sports department; he never got that far._

Between the canteen and the sports department was the labyrinthine formation of the art and design block; some people swore it'd been designed by the kind of modern artists that adorned it's walls, such was the confusing design. It wasn't just art, there were also food science, woodwork, metalwork and computer classes fitted into that department, but for ease of use, it was referred to as the art and design block. Doors tended to go off to random parts of the school from that department; doors at the back led to the humanities block, doors at the front led to one of the sports pitches, the corridor one way led to music rooms, another corridor led to the canteen. Only confusing if one wasn't particularly used to it.

Marron had made a slight noise of surprise as he felt someone grab his bag and tug it in another direction; Marron managed to regain his balance before he fell, but was still a little startled.

"Hey... what was that for?"

Marron found himself faced by about five people; two girls and three boys. Had he known, he might have recognized the two girls as the purple-haired girl and the girl with glasses, but he didn't. The only one he recognized was the boy with blonde hair; the other two boys seemed fairly non-descript, brown hair, no real redeeming features...

The boy with blonde hair smirked.

"On yer way to see yer precious boyfriend push some balls around?"

"... I'm on my way to see the basketball event, if that's what you mean." Marron dusted at his jacket.

"You wish Gateau was bouncing YOUR balls around, right?"

Marron took a step backwards, fuming inwardly. Trust this sort of group to show up now... the brownhaired boys prevented Marron from leaving the corridor; one boy blocked one end, the other blocked the other. The girls and the blonde boy stood in the center, watching Marron with a level gaze. Marron looked around, trying to work out what to do. He could either try and work his way out sensibly, or fight; fighting seemed a viable option, he wasn't sure if these people would listen to sense... but he decided to hear them out, in case all they wanted was their verbal fun.

"Our relationship isn't like that."

"Jeezus, you're always so damned calm and polite and crap. Don't you ever get worked up or anything? Jeez. ANYway... you remember me from the other day, right? I was gonna expose ya into a few little home truths about your boyfriend; what would you say if I said he was partial to attacking innocent girls?"

"I'd say you were lying."

The blondehaired boy pushed the purplehaired girl forward. "C'mon, tell him what happened. See, Marron, things like this are best out of the mouths of the victims... if ya don't believe me, you might believe her."

The boy nodded at the girl; she spoke.

"Well... it was... a few weeks ago... I was working at the same place as Gateau, and... and... he..." she started crying. "He... he tried to _rape me!!"... the other girl flung her arms around the purple-haired girl, as if on some kind of cue. There was something Marron didn't like about the situation, but he couldn't quite put his hand on it..._

"... because... we were working, and then he asked if I wanted to go for a drink with him... I agreed, thinking that it'd be harmless enough... then after that, we were walking home... he insisted on following me home, I thought he was just concerned about me, but... we got to the park, and... he dragged me down, and... he said he'd take me, no matter what I said!! I fought and I fought and I fought and I fought but he wouldn't let off, and... he said that he'd make me scream his name... but he said he wouldn't even whisper my name... he'd only whisper his boyfriend's name, 'Marron'... he'd make me scream under him like he'd made you scream underneath him, that was what he said!"

Marron just raised his eyebrow. He remembered the incident a few weeks ago, where Gateau had come home late that time, when he'd been quiet, introspective... it must have been the same incident that they were talking about, but... these people seemed to have a twisted view on what happened.

For a second, the thought 'Did that really happen?' crossed Marron's mind, before he shook it away, angry at himself for even thinking that. Of course that hadn't happened. These people were just vindictive, angry at Gateau for no discernable reason... Marron wondered how far he'd get with what he knew of the truth.

"I think I know what you're talking about... it didn't happen like that, did it? What Gateau told me... the two of you just went for a drink, then... I'm sorry to say this, but... you-" Marron indicated to the purple-haired girl, who was sniffling slightly in the blonde-haired girl's arms. "- threw yourself at him! You were the one who started it, or at least, that was what Gateau said. Gateau said that... he... he'd said someone else's name, then you got angry, and... that was where it ended. He'd seemed quite upset about the whole incident, however."

There was a pause. The members of the group glanced at each other; the boy scowled, pointing at Marron.

"He's lying!! He's lying, right? Tell him he's lying!"

The girl looked a little unsure for a few moments, then nodded. "Marron, you're lying."

Marron noticed that the girl looked away when she said this, almost as if she couldn't meet Marron's eyes while she spoke...

"He definitely definitely tried to rape me... he kept saying your name, he just... he was on top of me, I couldn't do anything, it was scary!"

"If you couldn't do anything, then how did you escape? Or are you about to amend your story to say he _did_ rape you after all? And even if he did only attempt it, why are you even standing here telling me about it weeks after the event? Why didn't you go to the police straight away and report an attack?"

Marron had a couple of other questions, but the boy stopped him before he could say anything else.

"HEY, pretty boy! Stop giving her a hard time about it, okay? It was a difficult thing for someone to go through, I mean, jeez!! Maybe she just didn't wanna go to the police, dija think of that? Maybe she's too scared, too embarrassed? Don't try and write everything off!!"

"_He's denying too much... alright, alright. Even if you are telling the truth, which I can't bring myself to believe... what do you expect me to do about it? Meet with Gateau after the basketball game and wag my finger at him? I don't know why you're telling __me about this, if it happened, then it happened, and you should try and cope with it..."_

Marron looked at the crying girl with sympathy. "I don't know exactly what happened that night, but... whatever happened, I'm sorry on Gateau's behalf; something happened that night that shouldn't have happened, and... I'm sorry."

The girl blinked at Marron, wide-eyed. Marron nodded slightly at her, showing he didn't show any animosity towards her; something seemed to connect, she nodded back. She spoke quietly.

"Y-yes... something happened that... shouldn't have happened... Marron, but he DID say your name, he... he said your name, did he tell you that?"

The girl spoke with conviction; Marron had a feeling that _this was the truth, however she was trying to hide her words from the others. This situation seemed complicated, but the girl obviously knew more than she was letting on about the situation... and it hit Marron that she could speak about that so truthfully. He knew that Gateau had said a name that he shouldn't during that time, he... he hadn't said what name, he hadn't even said what the girl was called, and he'd gone to bed soon after that... Marron knew that Gateau obviously had feelings towards him, deep friendship or more than that, but... was it possible that... Gateau had actually said his name that night? He'd said Marron's name... and that was why that night had messed up... that was why Gateau had wanted to talk about it, perhaps?_

The more Marron thought about it, the more confused he felt.

"N-no, he didn't... you have my thanks for your honesty, though..."

"Hey, shut the fuck up! If she's only just being honest, then what the hell was she on about before? I don't even know what the hell you're on about, d-damn, she's my girlfriend, and it was YOUR freaking boyfriend that tried to rape her! That's all that happened, right? I mean, can you even begin to imagine what she went through? That's a traumatic experience, and you're just standing back, 'oh, I don't believe that'...?! Shut up, just... just SHUT UP!"

Suddenly, unexpectedly, the blonde boy leapt at Marron; Marron was caught by surprise, he fell backwards, landing on his bag. He made a noise of surprise, slipping his bag off and rolling to the side as he dodged a punch from the boy... so, it'd turned into a fight. Marron fought back as well as he could while trying to avoid the hits of the boy; the girls cried at him, begged for him to stop, but he wouldn't stop, something had gripped him, and he was too far gone.

He took hold of Marron's hair, yanking it, pulling Marron's head back, smirking sadistically. "Anyone'd think ya wanted to be a girl or something. Why don't you get it cut?"

Marron hit the boy away, "That's none of your business." Marron wasn't totally sure, but this wasn't the time to be thinking about that. He stood back, managing to get to his feet; despite his avoidance, he'd been hit a few times, and his head was starting to feel that pain. He put his hand to his eye, touching it lightly... it hurt, that'd probably leave a bruise, come the morning. The boy hadn't finished- he leapt at Marron, pinning him against the wall. The boy was shorter than Marron, but blind rage kept Marron pinned.

"Heh, stupid gayboy, right? You're probably getting turned on right now, yeah? You want me to give it to you like Gateau does, you wouldn't mind if I ripped the clothes from yer body and fucked you right here and now, would you? You'd scream and cry, but you'd enjoy it... hey, why don't I do that? I mean, my girlfriend almost got raped by that boyfriend of yours, why don't we give him a taste of his own medicine and rape HIS significant other?"

At this point, Marron's anger rose. Marron's anger became a blind rage, and he pushed the boy from his shoulders with little effort. The boy was surprised, and fell backwards; Marron put his foot onto the boy's chest, moving it up to his neck, pressing down just a little too hard... Marron's eyes glistened with crazy anger, and, while Marron spoke, the boy didn't fight back.

"I can't _stand_ people like you... you'll make up lies for your own pathetic amusement, you'd make fun of people you see as lower than yourselves, again, just for kicks... but no-one is lower than _you... you... you thought I'd be a pushover, did you? You thought you'd try and get to Gateau through me? If you want to fight Gateau, then why don't you just fight him? You're too scared. You thought it'd be easier to get to me first... but I'm no easy fight, I won't __let myself sit back and take your insults... I... I won't forgive anybody who... hurts..."_

Marron felt another name on his lips, just for a fraction of a second... he wouldn't forgive anyone who hurt him himself? No, that wasn't it... he wouldn't forgive anyone who hurt Gateau? That wasn't it either. He wouldn't forgive anyone who hurt... his... who hurt his... no, it was gone.

The boy seemed to notice Marron's momentary confusion, and leapt up from underneath Marron's foot.

"Fuck, he's a psycho... hey guys, give me a hand here! He's really pissin' me off!!"

The other guys leapt forward, and grabbed Marron while the boy hit him. Marron was too preoccupied by what he'd felt before to really care about the fight. That had been a weird feeling... like deja vú... had that feeling been deja vú, his anger, the fact that he wouldn't forgive... them... whoever 'them' was... for hurting... hurting who? Marron rarely got into fights, it wasn't something he routinely shouted at people... who was it that he felt that he had to protect, in a fight? It wasn't himself, it wasn't Gateau, who was it? Nothing came to him; he realised the depth of the situation when he realised that the two larger boys were holding him against the wall, and the blonde boy was standing about a foot away, wielding... a knife?

Marron paled slightly. Weapons of any kind weren't allowed on college grounds, it went against any and every rule in the book, but... people like this obviously didn't care about that. Marron struggled against the hold of the other two, but they fought back just as much; the blonde boy lunged forward just as Marron managed to break free. Marron wasn't sure where the blonde boy had been aiming, but Marron's movement had caught him off-guard, and the knife caught him, instead of wherever it'd been meant to go, deep into his lower shoulder. It dragged downwards before the boy realised what he was doing and dropped the knife; it held in Marron for a few moments before clattering to the floor. Marron let out a slight cry, and fell forward, clutching his shoulder. He brought his hand back, dark blood was on it. Great.

Surprisingly, the two girls leapt forward to Marron's defence. The blonde girl dabbed at Marron's wound with a tissue, "Will it be alright? God, I'm so sorry, I didn't know he had a _knife_ on him, I'm so sorry, he... I'm sorry!"... Marron just shook his head, "It couldn't be helped... it'll be alright, it can't be that deep..."

The girl looked at Marron seriously. "Have you seen the blood here?"

Marron noted that his jacket was already stained with blood. His shoulder felt numb, and it stung... perhaps the wound was a little worse than he'd given it credit for.

He looked at the boy, who was sat against the wall, looking dazed. "The blood... the blood..."

The purple-haired girl went up to him and slapped him hard around the face. "You IDIOT!! Have you seen how much he's bleeding?! That's a really bad wound! You always have to go way too fucking far, don't you?! Jesus, you're gonna get expelled for SURE this time, you gotta keep holda that temper! Didn't I say the last time something like this happened that I was gonna finish with you?!"

He looked up at the girl, sadness in his eyes. "B-but... I was fighting for you!"

"I know, but not every girl WANTS to be fought for! Not like this! I'm even scared of you at times, never knowing how you're gonna react... that's how this whole damn situation came about in the first place!! My friends were right, I should never have got involved with you... forget second chances, you had them all the time ago, we're THROUGH!!"

The girl glared at the boy, who looked quite broken as he sat there. She approached Marron, and looked genuinely sorry. She produced a tissue from her sleeve, folded it up into a padded square, and pressed it to Marron's shoulder. "Look, I'm... I'm really, _really_ sorry about that. He gets pissed off sometimes... a lot of the time... jesus. I don't blame you if you want to go straight to the principal with this one... we'll even come along with you, right?" The girls nodded at each other.

Marron smiled, holding the tissue to his shoulder, despite it not really helping too much.

"No, I... I won't go any further with this. He seems sorry enough, and... I think he might have learnt his lesson..."

"Don't you bet on it. I don't want anything more to do with him, but... Marron, he had a knife on him! Even carrying a knife is enough to get after-class detentions for the rest of the year! And he attacked you with a knife! I mean... man, I'd heard you're nice, but that bastard doesn't deserve you being that nice... if he's done it once then he's just gonna do it again, maybe not to you, maybe to someone who's less likely to fight back... he's probably just surprised that _you fought back... no offence, but you don't really seem the type who'd... um..."_

"Who'd fight back? I'm not the kind of person who'd sit back and take that kind of behaviour. I don't see the point in it and I wouldn't exactly instigate it without reason, unlike some other people, but... if I'm capable of protecting myself, then I should, shouldn't I? I'm not as pathetic as some people might want to make me out to be." Marron smiled, pressing his shoulder.

The girls both blushed, looking downward. Oops, Marron thought... given them too much to think about.

The purple-haired girl looked up, blushing, smiling.

"If you and Gateau _are_ together, then... man, I'm jealous for the both of ya, I mean... I... I _like Gateau, but... I'd heard a lot about you, I'd never really spoken to you or anything, but... hehe, you two would make, like, um, a cute couple... 'cause Gateau's hot, and you're really nice, and, uh, haha... um... I'll shut up now. Sorry."_

Marron just laughed. "No, no, you don't need to apologize. Would it really be that disappointing to you if I told you that there was genuinely nothing going on between me and Gateau?"

"There really isn't?"

"There really isn't. We're just friends. Honestly and genuinely."

Both girls stared at Marron; the girl with glasses clicked her fingers. "Damn, there goes _my _fantasies."

"Whaat?!"

"Hehe, nothing!! Hey, um..." She looked back at the blonde boy; the two other boys had long since run off, but the blonde boy was still sitting against the wall, staring blankly at some patch of ground a meter or two in front of him. "... Marron, I know you don't want to say anything, but... it's the last day of term..." She nudged her friend's side with her elbow. "If we were going to say anything to the teachers, now would be the time, I think. Hey, um, Marron... do you want one of us to take you to the medical room or something? I don't care what you say, that's like, a hole in your shoulder, you should at least get it bandaged up or something like that..."

"What's the time?"

The blonde girl pulled a watch out from underneath her sleeve. "About half two, why?"

"Still another two hours to go... oh, but everyone's at the basketball game, aren't they?"

"Did you want to go and catch the rest of that? Gateau's playing..."

Marron thought about it. He'd promised Gateau that he'd watch the basketball game... most people would be at the basketball game... people were pretty much allowed to come and go as they pleased from the college, as long as they turned up to their classes, and there were no classes for the rest of the day... there was going to the medical room, like the girl had suggested... but at that moment, the idea of going home and sitting in front of the television with a nice hot drink seemed the most desirable idea. Perhaps a bath. He could clean his wound up a little there, and see how bad it really was... the girls were looking at Marron with curiosity. He realised their looks, and shook his head.

"I'd wanted to see the game, but... I'm sure I'll hear all about it when I get home... I'm feeling a bit tired now... I just want to go home."

"You're tired? Hey, are you sure it's not from bloodloss or something? Maybe one of us should walk you home or something... né, um," The purple-haired girl turned to her friend. ", maybe you should take him to the offices or something. Say what happened. Say I took Marron home, okay?"

The blond-haired girl nodded, and went off to take care of the blonde boy. Marron smiled at the purple-haired girl; seemed he wouldn't have been able to stop her wanting to make herself useful, even if he'd wanted to.

So the girl walked Marron home, constantly questioning him as to how he felt, wanting to be sure that he wasn't about to pass out on her; he didn't, but he let himself relax a little in the girl's presence.

Eventually, the two of them reached the home apartment block. The girl looked around with wonder.

"Hey, isn't Gateau supposed to live around here someplace?"

"Actually, we share an apartment."

The girl blinked in amazement. "What, really?"

"Yes, really. But it's totally innocent; Gateau's my friend, I'm his friend... but... I don't want anything more from him. I know what school rumor is like... school rumor would assume 'oh, they're friends, they gotta be bonking', and moreso at the fact that we're sharing an apartment... but it was just an arrangement that was useful to me at the time. My situation changed suddenly... it was the best idea at the time to move in with Gateau."

"Whee, I see... well, I still think you two could be a cute couple, but, haha, I'm just weird like that. How's your shoulder? Has the bleeding stopped? I'm kinda worried, Marron... I mean, that _was_ really brutal of him, I mean, we knew he wanted to fight you, but we never guessed he was carrying a KNIFE on him... he's just violent. He'll probably end up in jail before he's twenty." She reached up, smoothing Marron's hair back a little. "Want me to stay here a bit and take care of you? I wouldn't mind..."

Marron smiled, partly to himself. "I don't need to be looked after, I'll be fine, honestly. Besides, Gateau'll be back in a couple of hours..."

"... He can take care of you?"

"... ye- no, wait, I don't want you taking that in the wrong way! I mean, if I pass out or anything, he'll find me and phone an ambulance or something. Really, I'll be alright. I'm thankful to you for coming this far with me, but I don't need to be babysat. I'll be alright."

The girl looked concerned, but she nodded. "Well, if you're _sure... hey, um... got paper? I'll give you my phone number. I'm sorry about the whole thing, what happened with you, what happened with Gateau... not trying to be all crushy, but you __are nice, I wouldn't mind hanging out with you and Gateau a bit more. If you ever wanna come out for the night or something, just ask, I wouldn't mind."_

Marron nodded vaguely, and handed over the address book that sat next to the phone on the table in the hall. The girl wrote down her name, address and phone number, then handed the book and pencil back to Marron with a smile. "Cool! You don't have an excuse now!" She winked, then looked Marron over a little more. "Hey, what year are you in?"

"Two years below you."

"What, really?! Man! That's weird! You don't look it. That means that... you're 16, right?"

"Yeah..."

"Wow! You look older than some guys in _my_ year!! Don't blame the girls in your year for going on about you so much. Ya know my friend back there? She's got a younger sister in your year, in your class I think, actually... apparently she's always on about you. She's always on about you, your friends are always on about you... well, um, hey, you probably already knew that. So you're sure you don't need looking after?"

"I'm sure." Marron spoke with slight amusement.

The girl smiled, and backed off towards the door. "Well, can't stay around here all day. If I've got the afternoon off, well, there's no harm in hitting the shops or something! Seeya around."

"Bye..."

The door shut, and Marron was on his own in the apartment.

He smiled, shaking his head slightly. Seemed that girls were girls, no matter what year they were in.

Marron sighed, going through to the kitchen, turning the kettle on. He leant against the sideboard, feeling a shooting pain as he did so. He sighed again as he slipped his jacket off; he wandered through to his room and threw it into the pile next to the door, clothes that needed to be washed. Marron wondered how easy it'd be to wash blood out... he glanced down at his shirt. The shirt itself was red, but blood had left it's mark, and there seemed to be so much of it... but that was, Marron reasoned, just because fabric was an awful conductor of these kinds of things. Even a drop of liquid ink would spread on a shirt. The shirt also had a nice gaping hole in it now, from where the knife had gone in... fortunate that he'd learnt basic needlework some time ago. Always came in useful. He slipped the shirt off, it almost seemed to peel from his body around his shoulder.

Marron also slipped his vest off, and threw all his garments next to the door. He turned the light in his room off, and went to the bathroom to check out his hurts in the mirror there.

Marron winced when he first saw himself in the mirror. It wasn't that the knifewound looked bad, it didn't look _good_ as such, things like that were never really supposed to look _good, but it was just the blood around the wound that made Marron's eye twitch. The blood had dried somewhat now, and... didn't look particularly nice. First off, Marron decided, was to clean up that blood._

He leant over to the sink, running warm water onto some tissue paper. He touched the paper to his shoulder, and winced again. It stung... he sighed, this had to be done. He was still a little more careful as he touched at the skin, pressing harder where the blood had dried, but being careful over the wound itself. He idly wished magic existed, or something. Ah, to have the power to cure wounds and such with the touch or the wave of a hand... that'd be a nice power, Marron smiled to himself. What a silly thought. No-one had that power, things like that only existed in computer games and television shows.

Still, Marron thought, in situations like this, it'd certainly come in useful... he hoped the wound wouldn't get infected... well, as long as he tended to it, he figured it'd be alright.

Once the dried blood was gone, his shoulder looked somewhat better. The cut itself was bleeding slightly, probably, Marron thought, from his poking and prodding around it with tissue paper. He pulled himself a small wad of tissue paper, and dabbed at the blood, holding it to his shoulder. Marron idly wondered if there were any bandages in the apartment. Gateau was a keen sportsman... it made sense, sports people were always getting injuries and things like that, weren't they? Marron searched the cabinets in the bathroom, and eventually came across a couple of rolls of bandage. Marron smiled to himself, pulling one out, and arranging it on his shoulder so that it was partly wrapped around his arm, then around his shoulder. It went a little up his neck, but it covered the wound, and that was the most important thing.

Marron went back to his room for another shirt; much as Gateau respected Marron's want for platonic friendship, Marron wasn't sure how Gateau would react at Marron wandering around the apartment practically shirtless.

Marron glanced at a clock; it was half past three. An hour, more or less, since the whole incident at college had happened... Marron wondered how the basketball game was going. He felt slightly guilty for not turning up to the basketball game, but it couldn't have been helped, it wasn't as if he'd purposefully asked to be attacked at knifepoint by upperclassman psychos anyway. He was sure that he'd hear all about how the game went once Gateau returned home, but... he hoped Gateau wouldn't be too disappointed that Marron wasn't there.

Marron wondered how Gateau would react if he knew that Marron'd been attacked. Attacked on Gateau's behalf, even... Marron wasn't sure. Well, he could deal with that when Gateau came home.

Marron remembered that he'd been boiling a kettle; the kettle'd probably boiled itself out by now. He went back into the kitchen, boiled another kettle of water, and made himself up some tea. Tea was nice. He also remembered the noodles Gateau always had in the cupboard... it was long past lunch and there was still a while to go before dinner, but... Marron wrinkled his nose, why not. After all, he'd had a shock to his system, what harm was there in indulging a little? He made himself up some noodles, and took his drink and noodles through to the lounge, where he switched the television on. It was around the right time for children's television to be on... Marron smiled into his tea. Children's television was always amusing and relaxing to watch.

Marron watched television for several hours; he was a little shocked when he saw that the clock said that it was coming up to 6.20, but... it _had been relaxing to watch television, even though there hadn't been much on that was intellectually stimulating, cartoons and chat shows were easy enough to sit in front of with tea and noodles and relax._

Marron yawned and stretched out in the chair. He wondered what time Gateau would be home at... he shrugged to himself, scratching at his ear as he took his used cup and bowl through to the kitchen. He washed up, and looked out of the window. It was just starting to get dark outside. The basketball game couldn't go on for much longer, surely... Marron realised he didn't know, really, when it was going to end... well, it'd been going on since lunchtime, so... hm. He thought about it. It'd been going on since, that meant, about half past twelve... and it was almost half past six... no, it couldn't be going on for much longer, Marron was sure of that.

Marron quietly watched television for about half an hour longer, until he heard the front door slam. The sound was enough to startle Marron; he stopped stock still in his chair for a few moments, frowning. What had _that bee- Marron nodded to himself as he realised. Gateau must be back._

Gateau was back!

Marron lifted himself from the chair, and switched the television off; before going to go through to the front hall; Gateau stormed through before he could meet him there, Gateau went through to the kitchen without a word.

"Gateau?"

Marron followed him through. Gateau stood in front of the sink, the kettle was being boiled.

"Gateau, are you... alright?" Obviously not, Marron thought.

Gateau turned around, fixing Marron with a glare. "Nice of you to turn UP to the damn basketball game, Marron. I know it's probably the kinda thing that'd bore the hell outta ya, but you KNEW it was important to me, you promised you'd come watch!"

Marron looked down slightly. "Gateau, I'm sorry... it couldn't be helped, I mean..."

Marron didn't think that Gateau was in the best of moods to handle Marron's reasonings with the best possible calm dignity... he tried to divert the subject slightly. "... how did it go?"

"We lost... damn, I'm so pissed off... I mean... damn, I just... it's all my fault, I just couldn't keep my mind on the game! Kept looking up to see if you were anywhere..."

"Gateau, are you blaming the loss of your basketball game on me?" Marron spoke seriously, trying not to be accusing, but ready to defend himself if Gateau was going to lay into him.

Gateau paused, turning around, leaning his shoulders on the sideboard. Marron's arms were folded across his chest, one arm holding the other; it hurt to support the other on it's own. Gateau's look softened; he'd obviously been angry, but at seeing the defiance in Marron's eyes, Gateau couldn't keep the anger up.

"... Sorry. I... I wasn't trying to say that at all. Jeez, but even afterwards in the changing rooms, the others seemed to notice there was something up there... heh, they'd noticed I kept looking around, not really with my mind on the game... they kept asking me if I was looking out for a girlfriend or something like that. I just waved them off, 'something like that'. I mean, I know we're not... like that, but it kinda felt like... well, I don't know, it just woulda been nice to have ya there, y'know? Probably just me wanting to show off, but... we've been training for ages, I woulda liked to shown off to someone I felt it mattered to... it's okay having all the girls from your year screaming at me, but... can't I show off to you a bit too?"

"Gateau, I'm sorry... I would have come along if I was able. But... um... I got cornered by a teacher... wanted to have a word with me about some... late coursework... he... kept me back for a couple of hours to... catch up on the coursework..."

Marron wondered how obviously he was lying. Gateau was obviously cut up about losing the basketball game; Marron didn't want to worry Gateau any by saying he'd been attacked... Marron decided it wouldn't do Gateau any good, not in his current situation.

Gateau seemed to be buying it.

"Oh yeah? Man, that sucks! And you always work so hard on yer homework and stuff... man, that really sucks. I always hate getting kept behind 'cause of work and stuff... didn't you say that you wanted to watch the basketball game? I woulda thought that everyone woulda been there, even the teachers... still, some teachers just won't listen... sorry if I seemed angry. I'm just a bit pissed off at myself, I mean, this was an important game, ya know? Jeez, when we get back, the coach is sure gonna wanna have some words with me... oh well, that can wait, we've got a holiday now, ain't we?"

The kettle whistled that it was finished; Gateau prepared himself some coffee. "Want some?"  
"No thanks, I just had some tea."  
"Oh, right."

Gateau poured the hot water on, and went through to the front room. Marron followed him; the two of them sat on the sofa. Gateau sighed.

"Well, I guess if we weren't supposed to win, we weren't supposed to win. Woulda been nice to win, though... jeez. Well, holiday now. Time to relax! You wanna do something tomorrow? I feel like going out someplace, forgettin' about what happened."

"Tomorrow?"

"Saturday."

"... If you want to go somewhere, I'll go with you."

Gateau smiled into his drink. "Yup, that's good enough for me."

The rest of the evening went by quietly enough. Gateau ended up going to bed remarkably early, for a friday night. Marron had gone to bed at the same time, not seeing much reason to stay up. Gateau didn't seem angry anymore; maybe he'd been angry at Marron for not turning up, but... it seemed that Gateau couldn't stay angry at Marron for long, and would rather aim his own anger at himself... yes, that seemed like Gateau.

The next morning.

Marron had woken up early, troubled by his shoulder. He woke up, realised he'd been sleeping on it... his bandages felt trapping, he decided that perhaps he should change them. He went through to the bathroom, and decided that perhaps he could do with a bath as well; it wouldn't hurt, since he'd forgotten to have one the day before.

He ran the bath, waiting until the water was warm enough, then plugging the bath in, running some bath bubbles into the bath too; Gateau reckoned that no-one was too old for bubbles in their bath and so always bought a large bottle every week... Marron smiled wryly, thinking it'd be nice to have a big foamy bath.

He waited for the bath to fill itself up, taking his nightclothes off, discarding them in a pile to the side. It was early, too early for Gateau, Marron thought. However, the early night had taken it's toll on Gateau, and, even though it was early, it seemed that Gateau couldn't sleep. It also seemed that he hadn't heard the water running, because he walked into the bathroom with no prior thought.

He stared at Marron.

Marron stared at him.

Gateau's eyes darted down Marron's body, and Marron quickly turned away from Gateau, embarrassed.

"_If I was wearing clothes, he'd be undressing me with his eyes... don't do that, Gateau. I... should have locked the door..."_

"Hey, you were having a bath?" Gateau was already making his way out of the room. "Sorry, sorry, I, uh, I shoulda realised you were in there. Sorry."

Gateau grinned round the door. "Cute ass, though. Wah!"

The 'Wah!' came from Marron throwing the bubble bath container at Gateau, it hit him squarely on the nose. Gateau rubbed his nose, still peering round the door. "Hey, can't blame me for having a little peek, can ya?"

Gateau smirked, but his smirk vanished once he noticed a couple of things.

"H... hey, Marron..." Gateau sounded concerned, concerned and serious.

"What is it?" Marron slipped into the bath, deciding it'd be easier to hide his body from Gateau under the cover of the water and the foam than from just standing there wearing nothing but a blush. "I want to have my bath."

"I'll let you have yer bath, but... what the hell's that on yer shoulder?"

"My shoulder? ... There's nothing wrong with it."

"Don't give me that." Gateau walked back into the room, kneeling next to the bath. Gateau reached over, brushing foam away from where it gathered around Marron's shoulders; Marron glowered.

"Gateau, do I walk in when you're having a bath and continually perve on YOU?! It's nothing, just leave it, okay? Ah-"

Marron froze as Gateau's fingers came into contact with his wound; he couldn't deny it, it did hurt, it probably didn't help that Marron'd been lying on it for most of the night. The hot water also made it sting... Gateau retracted his fingers, clenching his hand into a fist as he saw that blood tipped his fingers.

"Marron, I'm not here to perve on ya. That's a pretty bad cut you've got there..." He brushed more foam away, looking at the wound properly. "... how the hell did you get that?"

"It's been there a while..."

Gateau looked at Marron's face, and gasped; "You've got a black eye too... don't say you've had THAT a while too... jesus, Marron! You're covered in bruises and stuff. What the hell happened?! And don't say you walked into a door or something, 'cause ya don't get things like that there on yer shoulder from walking into doors, not even big doors. You... get into a fight or something?"

Marron avoided Gateau's stare, drawing his knees to his chest and holding them there.

"Just let me have my bath."

"Well, sure... but come see me afterwards, maybe we can put something on that cut, cause it looks pretty damn deep... I'm worried, Marron. If you DID get into a fight..." Gateau's mind put two and two together. "Did you get _that in a fight? 'Kay, I'm even more worried now..."_

Gateau stood up. "I'll be waiting outside. I'm not gonna let ya get away with not talking about this, Marron... whoever did that... damn... I'm..." Gateau looked away, frustration on his face. "Just... just have yer bath."

Gateau sighed, and left the room, the door clicking as he left.

Marron stared at the door. He laid out in the bath, letting himself sink down a little. The water covered his shoulder, and it stung... Marron noticed blood in the water. Damn. The water must have irritated the cut... and it'd been bandaged all night, of course. The cut must have been more delicate than Marron had originally thought... he shook his head, trying to forget about the events of yesterday and the followup to that, and trying to concentrate on cleaning the rest of his body.

Outside the bathroom, Gateau leant against the wall, deep in thought. Marron was hiding something, it seemed... Gateau wanted Marron to talk about it. Gateau wouldn't let Marron _not _talk about it, but still... Gateau leant his head against the wall, staring up at the ceiling. If Marron had got into a fight... he sighed. Probably idiots from Marron's year taking the piss again, or something. Gateau closed his eyes, idly wondering on the situation... his eyes snapped open as he remembered yesterday. Marron _had seemed evasive when talking about why he hadn't been at the basketball game..._

Had Marron not turned up to the game... because he'd been in a fight?

Gateau frowned, staring down at the floor. He didn't like the situation at all. He hated the thought of Marron getting hurt, he hated the thought of anyone having that much vehemence to want to hurt Marron... Gateau thought about when he'd just walked in on Marron, before he'd got into the bath. Gateau hadn't really taken the time to notice, being more preoccupied with other things, but now he thought of it, Marron had seemed to have had bruises all over him...

"_I can't forgive anyone for them wanting to destroy Marron's beauty!! Marron's too beautiful to fight alone... I won't LET him fight alone..." Gateau sighed, remembering Marron's gasp when Gateau had touched that area on his shoulder. "__... I won't let him cry alone either... if he needs to cry, I'll let him cry on me... I'll hold him, I just want to protect him, I wouldn't ever be able to forgive myself if anything happened to him, he's my best friend, he's everything to me, he's more than a friend, more than my best friend, I love him!... ... I... oh my god..."_

Gateau froze. His thoughts had run away with him.

Was that what he really thought?

Gateau fell to a sitting position against the wall. The muffled sounds of Marron splashing around in the bath were audible through the wall, through the door... they seemed too loud in the silence of the apartment.

Gateau was angry that someone'd been angry enough with Marron to fight him and cause that kind of injury to him, yes. And, of course, there'd been the feelings that Gateau had been carrying with him since before he'd _known Marron... when he'd first seen Marron in and around college, he'd seen that beauty and something had just hit him... not just 'wow, he's pretty!', there was just... something else that Gateau had felt. Almost like he knew Marron from somewhere, though that was impossible. The feeling had been, partly, what made Gateau so nervous originally. There was something about Marron that seemed, stupid as it sounded, familiar. If not Marron himself - for how could Marron be familiar? Gateau had never even spoken to him before - then at least the feelings that Gateau had for Marron. At seeing Marron, it felt natural to want him, to want to be close to him... the feelings had almost scared Gateau. No-one had ever made him feel like that before... was this what love at first sight was? Was this love? Gateau hadn't been sure, but he'd been sure of one thing; he was sure that he wanted - no, __needed - to make himself known to Marron. Even if he was rejected like everyone else seemed to be, Gateau needed for Marron to know who he was. After watching him for a week or so, Gateau realised that that wouldn't be enough; he didn't want Marron to know who he was, then reject him and forget about him... he didn't just want Marron to know who he was. He wanted Marron to _know_ who he __was... not just know his name and that, he wanted Marron to __know him. He wanted to know Marron. He wanted to become friends, perhaps more, but only if Marron was comfortable with it._

But love... Gateau thought about it seriously. Was he, Gateau Mocha, in love with him, Marron Glacé?

... Yes.

Yes, he was.

Gateau felt a tightness in his chest for thinking about that, but... it seemed... right... it seemed right, it seemed natural... he loved Marron. How could he see Marron in any other way? Surely he'd thought of this from the beginning... even though he'd insisted on it so much in the beginning... how could he have been seriously happy with only Marron's friendship?

Gateau remembered the incident a few weeks ago, where he'd said Marron's name to that girl... that obviously had to be a sign of it. Marron had been preying on Gateau's mind enough for him to be whispering Marron's name in such a situation, even when he wasn't with Marron at the time... sure, there were all of Gateau's perverted comments, all his little flirting gestures, but... there was a barrier between him and Marron, and he knew that just as much as Marron did.

Did Marron wish as much as Gateau that that wasn't so?

Gateau put his hand to his face, leaning it against his knee. He suddenly felt so confused... he was lucky enough to even have Marron in his apartment, the two of them with such a trusting friendship, the two of them living together... Gateau couldn't even picture life without Marron now.

Gateau was disturbed from his thoughts by the sound of the bathwater inside the bathroom draining away. He stood up, Marron must be finished. And they were going to talk about something serious.

Gateau felt just a little nervous.

Marron emerged from the bathroom wearing a bathrobe. Gateau just _stared for a moment. There was something about Marron, wearing that bathrobe... Gateau blamed his hormones. Marron looked good in a bathrobe. That was the only reason why he couldn't stop staring... and it wasn't another one of those 'he looks familiar' feelings. Gateau mentally kicked himself, of course not! He'd never even seen Marron in a bathrobe before, but of course he was going to look familiar, he was the same Marron he'd seen day in day out for the past couple of months..._

Marron shut the door behind him, leaning against it a little. He looked up at Gateau, reaching to switch the light on, bringing light to the dark area.

"So. You wanted to talk?"

"Y-yeah... uh... M-Marron, I know this'll sound weird, but I don't mean it in a pervy way, I promise. But, uh, could you go through to my room and lie on the bed? And, uh, sorta slip the top of your robe down. Kinda. I mean- it's cause I wanna look at that wound, I mean, it's not cause I'm gonna... uh... I mean, no, I'm... just do it, please?"

Marron nodded. "I see."

Gateau watched him as he walked into his room; he was slipping his robe down as he went. Gateau blushed, then cursed himself. He'd just seen Marron naked, why was watching Marron slowly slipping the white fluffy material down his smooth pale shoulder such a turnon?

Gateau shook such thoughts from his mind, and went back into the bathroom, gathering up medical aids. TCP. Cotton wool. That kind of thing. He caught his reflection in the mirror; somehow, he looked... almost guilty, to his eyes. He spoke to his reflection.

"It's nothing sexual! I'm looking after him 'cause he's a friend and he's hurt!!"

His reflection stared back at him.

"It's... it's really nothing like that!!"

His reflection didn't look as if it believed him; did he believe himself? He sighed, gathering up bandages, and shutting the door after him. He took a deep breath as he walked into his bedroom.

Marron was lying on Gateau's bed, his robe around his waist... the robe covered his legs, but the way part of it fell open... a section of leg was revealed to the room, running up to a thigh, suggesting... further things...

Gateau turned away from that, concentrating on Marron himself. Marron was indeed lying on the bed, his eyes closed, his breathing soft, steady... Gateau just stood there for a few moments, watching in silence. Marron was silent on the bed, Gateau was silent in the room... Marron was just... so incredibly beautiful... his hair spread around him on the bed... the way it lay over his naked shoulders, his naked chest... the way his arms hung to his sides, unmoving from his sides, resting so gently on the bed... Gateau didn't want to turn the light on, he didn't want to do anything to disturb that beautiful figure on his bed, so still and silent he could have been sleeping... Marron _was a sleeping beauty. Gateau felt suddenly torn; he knew what he had to do... he also knew what he wanted to do. He knew that Marron wouldn't __let him do what he wanted to do, though. Marron wouldn't let Gateau walk up to him, wrap his arms around him, softly kiss those lips, kiss that skin... maybe slip that robe down, let it fall to the floor... they'd be on the bed, Marron might wrap his legs around Gateau's, pulling the two of them closer..._

"Are you just going to stand there and stare at me, or were you going to _do something?"_

"Uh? Oh, uh, sorry."

Gateau flipped the lightswitch on, brightening the room. Gateau went forward, and sat himself on the edge of his large bed, brushing hair from Marron's left shoulder, focusing himself on the wound.

Gateau hissed slightly as he saw it.

"Damn. Looks painful. So, how did you get it? Was it a fight?"

Marron opened his eyes, meeting Gateau's concern... Marron sighed, looking to the side.

"Y-yes... yes, it was a fight."

"Was... that why you didn't show up to the basketball game?" Gateau was shaking the bottle of TCP onto a small wad of cotton wool. Marron looked at Gateau suddenly.

"H-how did you...?"

"Hey, I'm not as stupid as I look. You come home with a gapin' thing like that, all bruised up... you _did_ promise you were going to be there, I wouldn't have thought you'd be the kinda person to let go of promises lightly... it kinda adds up, I guess. Does in my mind, anyway."

"I see..."

"Careful, this is REALLY gonna sting."

"Oh? Oh, right."

Gateau pressed the antiseptic to Marron's shoulder; Marron hissed suddenly, his fists clenching around the bedsheets, his knuckles white from the force of the pain. Gateau watched sympathetically.

"Sorry... but I guess it'd hurt more if it got infected."

"Why can't they make an antiseptic that doesn't sting so much?"

Gateau laughed softly. "I don't know. For the same reason they can't make a paracetemol that tastes nice, I suppose. You... okay? Mind if I dab it a bit?"

"Yes, I'll be alright. I was just a bit shocked before."

"Kay..." Gateau dabbed at the cut, wiping at it with strong strokes. He shook a little more of the liquid onto the cotton wool, and carefully watched Marron as he tended his shoulder.

"You sure it's okay?"

"It feels a little numb now, actually..."

"Yeah, well, that's the medicine in it workin', I guess. So, uh... how come you got into a fight? You're not the kind of person to randomly pick fights, I know you. Was it pricks from your year, looking for trouble?"

"Actually, it was people from your year, Gateau..."

Gateau pulled a new piece of cotton wool from the bag, and pressed it to Marron's shoulder, cleaning it up a little. He looked shocked. "What?! People from _my year?! What're people from my year doing on picking on people two years younger?! That's stupid!"_

"Do you remember a few days ago, we saw that person we suspected was from your year, and you said you thought he was a spiteful little bastard, or something?"

Gateau nodded, "Uh-huh?"

"It was him and two others... I don't know who the others were. There were two girls there too, one with purple hair, shoulder-length purple hair... the other had blonde hair in two plaits, and small square glasses... Gateau, it was that girl from a few weeks ago. The girl you met from work, remember?"

Gateau stopped in his motions for a moment.

"Really?! How... how did you know?"

"The whole group of them had some twisted version of what you told me. From their reckoning, it would seem that you were the one forcing yourself onto that girl... she made you out to be some kind of monster, almost... saying how you held her down, she tried to escape, but couldn't..." Marron's lips curled in a slight smile. "They also said that you kept saying my name, saying that you wouldn't say her name, saying that you'd only say the name of Marron, your boyfriend... silly ideas these people come up with sometimes, don't you think?"

Gateau was looking away from Marron; he'd been unable to meet Marron's honest eyes when he'd been telling him about the whole situation in the first place... and... he couldn't meet Marron's eyes now that the very object of his oppressed desire was talking about the situation... Gateau's silence spoke volumes.

"Gateau? What is it?"

Gateau didn't move.

"Gateau, say something... you're making me nervous. You didn't... attack that girl, did you?"

"Attack her? No, I didn't attack her. I don't care what they said, but... you believe that they're lying, don't you?"

"Well, of course... I mean... I know you, Gateau. You've got power, but you wouldn't use it like that... you wouldn't abuse it like that. You're not the kind of person to go around attacking girls. Besides, as I challenged them... if you really did attack her, then why didn't they go to the police immediately? At that point, the purple-haired girl's boyfriend got angry... that was around where the fight started, really. But... what do you mean? I believe that you were telling the truth, don't you think that I'd believe you? You're my friend, Gateau. I'm more likely to believe you than those other people."

Gateau paused for a moment.

He set the TCP and cotton wool onto his bedside cabinet, sighing.

"No, but... yes, they were lying about me attacking that girl... but... they were lying about who's name I said too, right?"

"I assume so... you never told me who's name you actually said, but... that's not important, is it? You said someone else's name, that's enough to make someone angry, or so I'd imagine..."

"Marron, I said your name."

"... I mea-what?!"

There was silence. Gateau had spoken while Marron spoke, but what he said was enough to stop Marron from speaking. Marron sat up slightly; Gateau turned around, glancing sadly over his shoulder at Marron. Marron just stared at him, disbelieving... his brow twitched into a frown.

"Gateau... what?"

Gateau spoke sadly. "Is it that hard to understand? I said your name when I shoulda been saying someone else's name. Mar-ron. That was the name I said. Only, it was more..." Gateau closed his eyes. "M-Marron... Marron, oh god, Marron... _Marron_..."

Marron just glared at Gateau, totally thrown as to how to react.

Gateau's eyes opened, looking so sad as he met Marron's glare. "That was the name I said, and how I said it. Maybe you understand why she got so mad... thinkin' I was gay, I suppose. Am I gay? I don't know, I just like people who catch my eye..."

"... And I caught your eye?"

"... yeah. Yeah, you did. Look, Marron, I don't know what to say... I don't want... to say too much... I don't want to scare you, I... I don't... I don't want to push you away from me, you're... I want to tell you that you're the most important person to me, I want to tell you... I want to tell you exactly how I feel, but it's all jumbled up inside, even _I _don't know how I'm feeling at times... the most important feeling to me is... is that I want to keep you as my friend... I don't want you to look at me like you do all those people in your year... when you reject them, when you write their feelings off as being stupid..."

Gateau looked away, looking straight in front of him, his hands netted together, clenched.

"... god, why is it suddenly so hard to even TALK to you? I... I just don't want you to think of me like another person who's crushing on you... it took so long to even approach you, but... that... that was even because of this - I didn't want you to meet me, decide in an instant that you didn't want to know me, and dismiss me, like you do all the others... when you spoke to me, I... I knew I had to be careful... I had to lock my feelings away deep inside, 'cause I didn't want to send you running... now you're here, in my apartment, in my bedroom... and it's been months, every morning and every afternoon and every evening I see you, and sometimes I _can_ convince myself that we're just friends. That I'm happy with us just being friends. And if friends is all I can have from you, then I honestly honestly don't mind... no. I do mind. But I don't want to demand anything from you... I _couldn't demand anything from you... I... I'm talking too much, but there's just so much to say..."_

Gateau put one hand to the bed, leaning on it... he felt one finger against Marron's hand. Marron either didn't notice the half-gesture or he didn't mind it, because he didn't move his hand... that little gesture from Marron 


	3. Marron's Feelings

****

Sorcerer Hunters

***

Future Echoes

**

  
~3~  
  
  


Marron noticed, wryly, that now that Gateau'd admitted his feelings for Marron, and Marron had admitted some kind of feeling back, Gateau seemed to get home from work a lot earlier. He never pressed the subject, but he wondered if he'd been right when he'd thought about it all that time ago... had Gateau really been leading a sexual double-life? Well, probably. It seemed like he'd stopped now, and this made Marron think; if Gateau had stopped having sex with other people... did that perhaps mean... he... expected it from Marron instead? No, not expected... Gateau hadn't said anything about the subject, not really. Gateau still flirted, but Gateau was Gateau, and flirting was just part of him. Once Marron started to think about it, it occupied a good part of his waking thoughts.

Gateau obviously wanted him; Gateau was in love with Marron, even their first conversation had contained such hints that Gateau _wanted him... Marron supposed that this was another aspect of Gateau not wanting to scare Marron with his feelings, and Marron wasn't quite sure on how to broach the subject without making a direct proposition; it wasn't that he wanted to say "Gateau, have sex with me", but he had a burning curiosity on why Gateau hadn't mentioned it up to that point... it'd been a couple of weeks since Gateau's initial outburst... Marron found himself watching Gateau idly as they went around their day to day business. Standing against the kitchen door with a finger on his lips, feigning attention as Gateau talked about what'd happened to him at work that day while he made coffee, or something. Marron didn't let on that he wasn't really listening, vaguely agreeing with Gateau when he asked for feedback, "What do you think?"... "Oh, I agree..."... Marron wasn't really listening, but his reaction seemed to please Gateau enough, he seemed to be passing it off convincingly enough._

Marron just watched Gateau; like Gateau about him, it was the little things that Marron noticed about Gateau. The way his shirt ruffled around his body... the way Gateau walked around with his top button undone, the way he sometimes undid the rest of them... the tightness of Gateau's jeans, the... the tightness of his jeans around his thighs, around his rear, around the front of that... Marron stopped himself one time, amazed at himself. Was he perving on Gateau, imagining what'd happen if...? If he randomly walked up to Gateau and ripped those jeans off, wondering what it'd be like if Gateau suddenly stopped making coffee and just turned around, fixing Marron into silence with a sudden kiss, ripping Marron's clothes from his body, his hands cold yet warm on Marron's suddenly naked chest... Gateau'd cover Marron's skin with trembling kisses, Marron'd gasp, letting him do whatever he wanted... maybe he'd rip Gateau's clothes off and do the same thing.

Marron smirked, slightly bemused. Yes, perhaps he was perving on Gateau after all.

Marron decided to leave it for a while; he was feeling a bit confused, so... it was hormones. Yes, that was it... hormones. Marron had long since been sixteen, seventeen wasn't too far away on the horizon... did it matter that he wasn't of _that_ age? Did it matter that he wanted hot passionate sudden sex with Gateau Mocha? In some places of the world, Marron'd heard that the age of consent was sixteen... in that case, it'd been for heterosexual relations, but still... Marron wrinkled his nose, lying on his bed, reading a magazine. Such strange rules people had sometimes. If he and Gateau somehow ended up having sex in the next couple of minutes, Marron thought, he wouldn't be stopping Gateau just because he wasn't eighteen yet.

Marron put his magazine on his chest for a moment, realising something. He hadn't really thought about it before, but... perhaps Gateau had? Maybe that's why Gateau didn't say anything? Maybe Gateau was waiting until Marron was 'of age' to do that kind of thing?

Marron raised an eyebrow, hoping that wasn't the case. If that _was the case... that was like... another year and howeversomany months... however, if either Gateau or Marron were a girl, they could be having sex already... Marron growled slightly to his silent room. THAT was just stupid. No, Gateau hadn't said anything just because... he was nervous, perhaps._

Marron stared up at the ceiling, confused. Recently, it seemed to be all he could think about. It made sense, him and Gateau were virtually boyfriend and boyfriend already, there was all the being close to each other, there was the touching, non-sexual but still, the kissing, Gateau's ceaseless "You're so beautiful" type comments... Gateau wasn't exactly the type to act _sweet, flowers on the doorstep or anything, but Gateau was obviously acting as close as he wanted to. Marron would quietly react as much as he wanted to, soft, knowing smiles, the... well, everything. The touches, the kisses, not everything was spurred on by Gateau, Marron had urges of his own._

Urges... that led Marron back to his original thoughts. Gateau was almost certainly not a virgin, but... Marron wasn't sure where Gateau stood where it came to guys. Obviously Gateau was open-minded enough to go after Marron in the first place, but had he _been_ with any guys in the past? Marron mused on the point. He wasn't sure. Did he really want to know? Again, he wasn't sure.

Were his thoughts hormonally-driven? Well, undoubtedly so. Whatever the reason, one question burnt stronger in Marron's mind. Sure, there were his thoughts, but... should he act on those thoughts? That was the main issue. Would his thoughts pass? If they passed, what then? Would Gateau mind a non-sexual relationship? Did Marron _want_ a non-sexual relationship?

Marron answered his own question when he heard Gateau's knock on the door. "Marron? Can I check out yer chest?"

Marron was totally taken by surprise. Gateau wanted to look at his chest? He blinked at the door.

"Marron? You awake? I bought some more cotton wool..."

It clicked. Oh, of course. The wound.

Marron got up, "Coming," and got up to open the door. Gateau smiled, brandishing TCP and a new bag of cotton wool. Marron took his shirt off, sitting back on the bed. He brushed his fingers over his shoulder, looking down at where the wound had been... he looked up at Gateau.

"I daresay you don't have to worry anymore, Gateau... I think it's just going to leave a scar, that's all."

Gateau sat down on the bed next to Marron, still pressing TCP onto the cotton wool. "Well, hey, gotta look after that scar then, right? Kinda annoying, though. I mean, well, y'know... imagine if he'd got ya somewhere else! Like yer face or something... you'da had a nice scar on your pretty face, how would that've been?"

"I think people would still find me beautiful..." Marron spoke with almost a sneaky sound to his voice. Gateau caught this, looked a little surprised, then smiled.

"Yeah, yerright. Anyway..." Gateau wiped the damp cotton wool over Marron's skin. "Feel anything? Does it still sting or anything?"

Marron shook his head. "Nothing. It feels like it would if you were treating any other part of me, I think..."

"Musta closed up totally, then. Even a week or so ago you were saying about how it still stung a bit... well, hey, if that's the case, I don't need to keep buying antiseptic, do I? We've anti'd the septic. Looks like it's pretty much better, huh? Heh, just as I was getting used to you takin' yer shirt off for me every coupla days. Looks like I'll haveta walk in on you in the bath instead."

"G-Gateau!"

Marron was slightly unsure on how to react; it was the usual flirting, but after what Marron'd been thinking about prior to Gateau walking in, he was unsure in another way. As much as Gateau would miss the opportunity to see Marron's naked chest, Marron realised he might miss Gateau treating his wound too... it was out of context, but it was still a touch... how could he express that to Gateau, though?

Gateau was putting the lid back onto the bottle, "Well, at least we don't haveta smell that stuff anymore. Never could stand it."

Marron just watched Gateau carefully. Gateau smiled at Marron, "You can put yer shirt back on, Marron."

"I don't want to..."

"... Huh?"

Marron took advantage of Gateau's momentary confusion, sitting up to a kneel and taking Gateau in a sudden kiss, wrapping his arms around Gateau's upper body, pressing his chest against Gateau's shoulder. It was slightly uncomfortable... Marron pushed himself with his legs, he moved round so his chest was against Gateau's, then he fell back onto Gateau's lap.

Gateau put the bottle down onto the bed, blinking at Marron. Marron just blushed up at him, some kind of... intense look in his eyes... Gateau coughed, trying to busy himself with mundane things.

"W-well, I better go put these away, uh, y'know..."

Gateau seemed for a moment as if he was going to stand up, but Marron wouldn't let him. Marron sat up slightly, pushing against Gateau's chest... an idea suddenly came to him, he moved off the bed and more onto Gateau's legs, so he was sitting on Gateau, straddling his legs, hands holding onto Gateau's shoulders.

"... Don't do that. Not just yet."

"Marron, what... what are you doing?"

Marron kissed Gateau again, a soft kiss. He pulled back slightly.

"I would have thought that was obvious, Gateau..."

"Marron, I... I... no, I mean... I don't know what I mean. How come you're suddenly doing this? You don't normally..."

"Gateau, would it surprise you if I told you I'd thought of nothing else for the past couple of weeks? I... I know it sounds strange, perhaps, coming from me, when you were petrified that even letting me know your true feelings would cause some kind of negative reaction... but... I... I _want... you, I suppose. I can't stop thinking about it. I don't know if it's just a sudden charge of hormones, or whether it's the time of year, or the fact that it's tuesday, it could be anything. I just... know... that... I want you..."_

Gateau's eyes widened.

"G-God, Marron!"

Gateau almost pushed Marron off his legs, being careful not to push him to the floor. Gateau suddenly ran from the room, leaving Marron confused and horny on his bed. Marron frowned, confused, noting the antiseptic and cotton wool still on his bed. He took the items in his hands, and left his room, visiting the bathroom to put them back into the cupboard. He glanced around; Gateau's bedroom door, parallel to his own, was open. Gateau wasn't in there. He wasn't in the bathroom, and glancing into the main room, he wasn't in there either. The whistling of the kettle told Marron what he'd suspected; Gateau was making himself yet another coffee.

Marron walked into the kitchen, leaning against the door after he closed it, folding his arms. He had a soft look on his face, not smiling, but not angry.

"They should pay you for the amount of coffee you drink."

Gateau didn't turn around, or even say anything.

"Gateau? Speak to me. What... happened there?"

"I should be the one asking you that, Marron." Gateau sounded distanced.

"Gateau, I'm... confused. I... I'm sorry, I thought that you'd... I... maybe I... came on too strong. I'm sorry. But you... I thought that you'd want to, I mean, I thought you'd want me... perhaps I was assuming too much?"

There was silence as Gateau poured himself coffee; he set the kettle back onto the side, then sighed loudly, his arms leant against the sideboard.

"Everything always seems to end up in the kitchen, doesn't it? Look, I... Marron, do you... know what you're saying?"

"Yes... yes, I do."

"I mean... do you know what you're asking from me?"

"Yes!"

Gateau glanced over his shoulder, his eyebrow raised.

Marron just stared back at him, before Gateau looked away. Marron still stared.

"Gateau, what's... what's the problem? I'm not lying. I've... been thinking about it a lot recently... I can't stop thinking about it. Thinking about you. Is that... so wrong? Perhaps I surprised you... I'm sorry. Was... I wrong to expect that you'd want that kind of relationship from me? If not that kind of relationship, then... what is it you want from me? What are we asking of each other if it's not that?"

Gateau turned around, strided the four or five steps between him and Marron, and hugged Marron strongly, nestling his chin in Marron's hair, wrapping his strong hands over Marron's shoulders. Marron was surprised, but didn't push Gateau away.

"Gateau?"

"I don't want to say no, Marron. I'm... it sounds stupid..."

"Say it..."

"... I don't want to say no, but I'm scared of saying yes..."

Marron looked up at Gateau, frowning slightly. "Scared of saying yes?"

Gateau looked down at him, nodding slightly, running his hands down Marron's back just a little.

"Y-yes... I... I don't know why. You're beautiful, we're... pretty much together, I shouldn't even _think_ about saying no, should I? I mean, even you were thinking of... it all... heh, never thought that you'd be the one to start it off, kinda thought I'd eventually say something..."

"I was wondering why you hadn't said anything to this point. Gateau, what's there to be scared of? I'm not going to say no, if you thought I was... I've... not done anything like that before, but... there's a first time for everything, isn't there? Gateau... what's to stop us?"

Gateau replaced his head on the top of Marron's.

"N-nothing, but... Marron, you really don't mind? I don't get why you'd want some stupid muscleheaded idiot for yer first time..."

"Gateau, where did that come from? You're not a muscleheaded idiot... you're my best friend, remember? You're the person who said they loved me... you're the closest I've ever come to loving someone else. You don't have to say yes, but... I thought you'd want to."

"Marron, I _do_ want to... I just... can I have a little time to think about it? I mean, yeah, I'd always thought about doin' it with ya, but... I just need a bit of fresh air."

Gateau extracted himself from Marron. Marron sighed, folding his arms again. "Going out?"

"Yeah..."

"Do you want me to come with you?"

"Kinda want some time on my own, wanna think about things and... stuff."

Marron followed Gateau through to the front hall, where Gateau pulled his coat on. Gateau smiled at Marron, slightly sheepishly.

"I'll be back in a while. Sorry."

"No, no, it's alright. If you feel you have to go out, then go out. I'll still be here when you get back."

Gateau closed the door, nodding, mumbling something.

Marron watched the door for a moment, wondering... Gateau wanted to go out to think about things. Marron wondered what things Gateau wanted to think about... Marron wondered how long Gateau was going to be out for. An hour? Longer? Not as long as that? A quick walk around the block, or...

The sudden irrational thought occurred, "What if he's going out to see a girl?"

Marron shook the thought from him. No, Gateau wouldn't... be doing that, would he? No, he was just nervous at Marron almost throwing himself at him, that was it. He wouldn't say "maybe" to Marron, then walk out and find some girl and... no!

Marron scowled to himself as he ran to Gateau's bedroom; he felt suddenly jealous. He didn't want Gateau to go off with other people, with girls, he didn't want Gateau to find sudden comfort in someone else's arms... Gateau said he loved Marron! Gateau had said he'd loved Marron, and Marron hadn't been sure how he felt, but... he certainly felt _something_ for Gateau, even if he wasn't sure it was love in itself...

Marron jumped onto Gateau's bed, lying on it. He stared up at the ceiling; Gateau's ceiling was much the same as his own. Almost the same, really. Ceilings didn't change too much, and it made sense that they'd be similar... Marron wondered why he was sitting on Gateau's bed, considering ceilings. He felt a kind of pain within him... what was that? Was that jealousy? Was he getting jealous? Marron wondered how different he'd feel if he knew that Gateau was, say, somewhere else in the apartment... would it feel better if he was closer? Marron recalled the feeling of Gateau's arms around him when he'd hugged him just a few minutes ago. That hadn't felt bad. Marron bit his lip, realising something. He wanted Gateau here. He wanted Gateau in the room with him, touching him, hugging him, he wanted that hug to go further... and it frustrated him to no end that he'd suggested it, and Gateau had... Gateau had almost said no, in a way. He hadn't said yes. He'd said something in the middle... Marron thought about when he'd come onto Gateau earlier in his bedroom... when he'd straddled Gateau's legs like that... it would have been so easy for Gateau not to have said anything, just for him to agree with Marron's motions, for him to have pushed Marron to the bed, held him down, kissed him, touched him... Marron sighed in frustration and stretched out on the bed.

A sudden idea occurred... if Gateau _had_ gone out to be with a girl... perhaps Marron could give him something irresistible to come back home to. Something that'd make Gateau not _want to go out and find comfort in someone else's arms..._

Marron smirked to himself as he undid his belt and pushed his trousers down, kicking them off to the side.

"_Oh, Gateau... how I've changed."_

Marron didn't know that Gateau hadn't actually gone anywhere. Gateau was currently standing on the balcony of the apartment, about a foot or two in front of the apartment's front door. He stood on the balcony, leaning against the rail that ran along the front of the apartment block. The apartment was about four or five floors into the air... Gateau had a decent view of the town ahead of him. It was getting dark, the sky was more dark than it wasn't, the sun long gone; the stars would be visible soon. In front of him, streetlamps dotted the horizon and closer... Gateau could make out car headlights on roads in front of him as they drove to wherever they were going.

"_Marron is in the apartment behind me... and... earlier on, he wanted me to... he wanted... to have sex... and... I said... no? Did I? What did I say... I said I needed time to think about it. What the hell is there to think about?!"_

Gateau pictured Marron in his mind.

"_... Other than... how... that body could be mine... no, not just that... Marron said I was the closest he'd come to ever loving anyone... was that him saying he loved me, in a way? Even if it wasn't, it was... kinda something, wasn't it? I..." Gateau sighed. "__... why am I so nervous? It's Marron! He's beautiful! He's the guy you fell in love with! You fell in love with him, and somehow, he might feel the same way. However he feels, he's said that... he wouldn't mind... having sex with you. He even tried to seduce me on his own bed... oh man... I should... what should I do? I want to, but... can I? Marron's different, Marron's not like all those other girls... with those girls, it was always just sex and stuff, but... Marron's... Marron's the person I love, but it feels like more than that... it's not just that I love him, but what more is there than that?"_

The wind blew; Gateau pulled his coat to him. "_It's getting chilly. I should go back inside, whatever's gonna be there when I get back... Marron's probably doing homework or something by now."_

Gateau was pretty far off the mark.

Gateau walked back into the apartment, pulling his coat off again, hanging it on one of the hooks on the rail next to the front door. The front hall was dark... he turned the light on. Walking into the front room, Marron didn't seem to be in there... well, no. He'd probably retreated to his room, to do homework. Gateau glanced at the television magazine on the floor, wondering if anything was on TV... it would have been easier if he'd came in to find Marron watching television, or something.

Gateau stood in the middle of the room for a few moments, wondering what he should do. Seemed that Marron wasn't around, so... Gateau shrugged, deciding to go straight to bed. Today had been strange; perhaps things would seem better in the morning, once he'd got some sleep. And maybe Marron'd realise he'd acted rashly, and realise he didn't quite want Gateau like that after all. Gateau wondered if he'd be upset or relieved if that happened... he sighed, deciding to push it to the back of his mind, not wanting to think about it for the moment. It was easier to concentrate on the smaller things, like getting ready to go to bed, things like that.

Gateau walked over to his room; he noticed that Marron's bedroom door was shut... he probably didn't want to be disturbed. Best to leave him alone, then.

It wasn't until Gateau put his hand to his own door handle, he heard... the noise.

The noise was enough to stop him in his tracks. It was soft to his ears, but... definitely a noise... from the other side of his door? Or was it coming from Marron's room? Gateau wasn't sure. He glanced around.

"Uhhhh..... ohhh, Ga.... Gateau....."

Gateau froze. "_Wait a moment. That was... Marron's voice?!_"

Gateau's mind had frozen alongside his mind. That made no sense...

"_If I didn't know any better, I'd say 'That's Marron's voice, calling my name out', but... it wouldn't be. Would it?"  
Gateau looked at Marron's room again, then back at his own. Well, it was his apartment, if he couldn't even go into his own room, it'd be a bit strange. Besides, why would Marron be in Gateau's room?_

Gateau was starting to feel quite, quite creeped out. This was getting strange.

Gateau opened his bedroom door, switched the light on...

"_Oh yeah. That's Marron alright. M-M... Marron!!"_

Marron stopped stock-still in mid-pelvic thrust. He was blushing, he was naked, he was...

"Marron, why are you... jerking off on my bed?"

Marron smiled, his breath coming in short gasps. "Oh, don't act so happy to see me then, Gateau. That didn't take you too long... she say no, did she?"

"Marron, what?"

"You don't want me, so... you thought you'd go off to the arms of another one of your girlfriends, right? Am I wrong? It's good that you came home now, though... I... don't know how much longer I can last..."

Gateau blinked wordlessly at Marron.

He hadn't been expecting _that_. He wanted to say something in his own defence, he wanted to deny Marron's accusation, he wanted to say that no way had he been going off to see girls, but somehow, all he could make his body do was walk forward, lean over the bed, and kiss Marron suddenly. Marron seemed shocked, but he smiled into the kiss. Gateau pulled away, Marron's head fell back onto the bed.

Gateau found his own breath came a bit heavy now; forget what he'd just been thinking about. He couldn't _remember_ what he'd just been thinking about... just that Marron was naked and aroused and on his bed and willing and ready and waiting and... how could Gateau have thought of saying anything other than 'yes'?!

"Marron... how... can you say that?"

"How can I say what?"

"How can you say I'd go off to the arms of someone else? Marron, I didn't get further than the apartment balcony... I just... don't want you hurrying into something you'll end up regretting!"

"Gateau, I don't want to regret it... I just want it to happen... I want something to happen..."

Gateau stood up, looking Marron over; Marron blushed, but didn't say any of his normal 'Don't perve on me' comments. Gateau's fists clenched, he looked away slightly.

"I can't take advantage of you..."

"Gateau, you WOULDN'T be taking advantage of me! What do I need to do or say to you... Gateau, how hard is it for me to say 'I want you' and have you say 'I want you too'? Don't you... feel like that?"

Gateau walked back to the door, turning the lights off; the room wasn't reduced to total darkness, just a darker shade of blue. Somewhere outside, a streetlamp shone, meaning that the room couldn't be totally dark anyway, not unless Gateau shut the curtains... the way the streetlamp shone meant that Marron, lying on the bed, was swathed in orange light. Marron watched Gateau as he turned back to face Marron. Gateau had a serious look on his face.

"Marron... of course I feel like that. Of course I want you... I've always wanted you. I just can't believe that... you want me back..."

Gateau was starting to undress.

"... looks like nothing'll change your mind... so... don't say I didn't warn ya."

"Gateau... just... take me..."

Marron's last two words were a whispered request, whispered, breathless...

Gateau wouldn't hesitate to comply. Naked, he joined Marron on the bed, covering him with kisses like how Marron had dreamt; Marron called Gateau's name, like how he had dreamt also.

At first, Gateau had still seemed a little nervous, despite Marron's express permission. A kiss would be accompanied by a "Do you mind this?", Gateau's hand running down Marron's body would be followed by a "Are you sure you don't mind?"... "Can I do this?"... "Do you like it when I do that?"...

In the middle of one of his questions, Marron silenced Gateau with a kiss, wrapping his arms around Gateau's neck, wrapping his legs around Gateau's thighs... Gateau was surprised to see, when Marron pulled back, almost an angry look on Marron's face...

"Gateau... I don't want you to say anything else."  
"M-Marron?"

"For us to come this far... no, I don't mind. I don't want you to say anything else tonight... don't _say_ things, just _do things... I don't want to worry about having to give you permission for everything... I just want to feel... have you feel..."_

Marron reached down, lithe fingers touching around Gateau's arousal; he touched it lightly, almost... teasing Gateau.

"Marron..."

"After this... the only thing I want us to say... is each other's names... alright?"

Gateau's passionate kiss made Marron think that yes, that was alright.

And so, on that night, the two of them finally gave up any remaining barrier between them, succumbing to each other. More Marron succumbing to Gateau. Gateau had been nervous about hurting Marron at first, but at starting to speak, Marron had put a finger to his mouth, silencing him, reminding him of earlier. He'd let out a cry when he felt Gateau inside him, but that was to be expected. Marron had almost frozen at that first feeling, movement from Gateau urging him into movement... it was new to Marron, but it was from Gateau; it was something he wanted to get used to.

Gateau had held Marron tightly to him, not wanting to hurt him any more than he had to, if he had to at all. His initial thrusts were as gentle as he could make them, but he wasn't totally invincible. Marron looked beautiful like that, in his arms, Gateau himself deep inside him... Gateau held Marron underneath his arms, Marron with his own arms around Gateau's back, holding on... he'd called Gateau's name, wanting Gateau's movements to be more... he wanted to really _feel this person's potential passion. So he said so. Gateau smirked, breathless, but still... "I thought you didn't want us to say anything 'cept each other's names?"_

"Is it wrong to say what I want?"

"Not at all, Marron. Not at all."

So Marron told Gateau what he wanted; Gateau did his best to give it to him. He seemed to be going in the right direction, because Marron's movements were starting to become a little more harried, his breath that bit more ragged... he was gripping onto Gateau's back with some power now, Marron's hands almost raking their way down... soon, they were. Gateau arched back a little, feeling some kind of stirring within his own body at seeing Marron get closer, feeling his body on him, around him... Marron was gasping now.

"Ga-Gateau... I... I'm coming..."

Gateau kissed frantically at Marron's neck, nodding, nuzzling, kissing.

"I... I know... I wanna make you come... I wanna come with you..."

"Come with me, then... come- oh- oh god- GATEAU..."

Marron threw his head back as he threw himself into Gateau's arms, holding onto him as tightly as he could manage; Gateau helped him along, pulling his own arms around Marron, hardly being able to concentrate on anything except for the beautiful creature in his arms, that and his own climax... Gateau let out a long, loud cry as he finally came to release, deep inside Marron. Marron's name might have been there somewhere, he was too far gone to know anymore.

The two of them fell back on the bed, panting. They lay there for a few moments, before Marron weakly pushed at Gateau.

"H-huh?"

"Get off me, Gateau... I..."

Marron didn't say anything else. Gateau felt a sudden misgiving - was Marron regretting it after all? He pulled out and away from Marron as quickly as he could, shifting to the other side of the bed, giving Marron his space. He listened to Marron's breathing, feeling an aching in his chest. That'd been intense, that'd been good, him and Marron had finally had sex... but was Marron regretting it?

He felt Marron reach out for him. He looked across at Marron, and saw, to his relief, a smile.

"What're you doing over there? I just needed to catch my breath..."

"Oh... god, you're beautiful..."

"Gateau, n-not now... I'm tired, I want to sleep..."

Gateau nodded slightly, not sure what to say to that. Marron rolled over slightly, tugging on Gateau's arm.

"Can't I want to feel close to you or something?" Marron yawned. "Want to have your arms around me..."

Gateau sighed, then yawned, triggered by Marron's yawn. "Sure."

So Marron eventually managed to fall asleep in Gateau's arms.

The night wore on, Marron and Gateau totally oblivious to anything. Even when it was morning, the morning sun streamed into the room and birds sang outside, the two still slept.

Gateau eventually woke up around lunchtime, not realising the time. He realised his arms were still around Marron; he took a moment to reflect on what'd happened, or at least on Marron's beauty. The sunlight really, really made Marron look beautiful... he almost looked... innocent, while he slept. Gateau shifted slightly against Marron, enjoying Marron's warm body against his own... Marron made a vague noise in his sleep, but didn't say anything. Gateau worked one arm from underneath Marron, lying him down on the pillow, sighing happily. He just watched Marron as he slept, running his hand through Marron's soft hair. Marron really _was_ the person he loved... Gateau smiled to himself, feeling poetic. Marron had the kind of beauty people wrote poems about, didn't he? His long, soft, beautiful hair... Gateau was sure he could come up with a million words to describe Marron's hair, but the word 'black' was all he could think of at that moment in time. Still, it worked. Long, soft, beautiful, black. What next... Marron's hair framed his face, so... Gateau brushed back Marron's hair, looking at the delicate shell of Marron's ear. Marron had beautiful ears. Had he noticed that before? He wasn't sure, but that didn't matter, he was noticing it now. Marron's ear was near to Marron's eyes, sort of... them next. Marron's eyes were closed... if they were open, then... they'd be golden... golden... Gateau thought about it. Golden... pools of deep eternity he could lose himself in? He almost laughed. He sounded like one of Marron's poetry books. Shining golden pools of deep eternity, indeed. Still, Marron _did_ have pretty eyes... they could be something like that. Currently they were closed, soft eyelashes brushing soft, gentle cheeks... Gateau wondered how cheeks could be 'gentle'... still, Marron was generally gentle, so, yeah, his cheeks could be gentle too. This was fun; Marron was totally lost to the land of the living, and had no idea of the silly thoughts that ran through Gateau's mind. Gateau smiled; they were silly, but they were fun. He loved Marron, he could afford to be a bit silly. So, what came after that? Marron's nose? Gateau thought for a few moments. Marron's nose was... a nose. There wasn't really any way to describe it. But it was on his face, and his face was beautiful, and he'd probably look strange without a nose, so... Marron's nose was beautiful too, Gateau wasn't sure how, it just was, and he decided to leave it at that. Underneath Marron's nose was his mouth. Oh, and his lips. Marron had soft, kissable lips. Lips that looked nice when they were caught on Gateau's name, saying it with passionate abandon... and of course, Marron's mouth was where his voice came from, and Marron's voice was nice to hear. Deep, but not too deep. Generally friendly. Just... a nice voice. That brought Gateau down to Marron's neck - oh yes, his chin too. Marron's chin was delicately pointed, nice to take hold of while kissing. Then his neck. Marron's neck was... well, nice. Marron's hair fell against it... it was pleasantly curved, in a neckish sort of way. Gateau recalled kissing Marron's neck to varying degrees of passionate intensity last night... yes, that was what necks were good for. Necks could be kissed and nipped and nuzzled, and Gateau had enjoyed doing that to Marron's neck last night.

Gateau was about to muse on the poetic beauty of Marron's chest when Marron shifted in Gateau's arms; he opened his eyes, blinking himself softly awake. The sunlight in the room was bright, and it was shining directly on Marron... he shielded the light with one hand, then noticed Gateau. Gateau was smiling at him, smiling softly, gently, lovingly... his voice was soft, too.

"Mornin', beautiful."

"M-morning to you too... so, um..." Marron didn't seem quite sure what to say.

Gateau just smiled a little wider. "Heh, I know. Hard to know what to say, isn't it..."

Marron smiled, a little nervously. "Y-yes..."

Gateau pulled his arms away from Marron, still smiling. "While you're working out what you wanna say, how about I make us some coffee? Coffee's good in any occasion."

"A-alright."

Gateau chortled to himself as he hopped out of bed, noting Marron's expression as he went out of the room. Marron had seemed so commanding last night, and now, he was... almost confused... confused? Maybe not that. Well, whatever Marron was, he was cute.

Gateau stretched in the hallway. Maybe a shower? He said he'd make coffee, coffee could come first. He wandered into the kitchen, musing on how nice it was to be able to wander around naked. He heard Marron call from the bathroom, "I'm going to take a shower", he called back his own agreement. He could wait until Marron'd finished.

The kettle whistled, steaming up the window slightly. Outside was beautiful too. People going around on their day to day business... the sunlight was just nice to see, though. There wasn't a cloud in the sky... Gateau had a slight feeling that perhaps there was something he'd forgotten, but, on thinking of how nice the day was, and how beautiful Marron was, he decided it couldn't be too important.

Gateau poured himself coffee, and also poured Marron a cup of tea. Marron liked tea, so... it didn't do any harm to make a little gesture like that. Gateau wandered through to the front room, setting the tea down onto the table in front of the television. Gateau almost laughed; he just felt so much happiness! His unsure feelings from last night seemed so far away.

After a couple of minutes, Marron emerged from the bathroom, wearing a towel around his waist.

"Bathroom's free."

"Oh, yeah. I made'ja a cup of tea. Thought you'd like it."

"Thanks, Gateau."

Marron sat down in front of the television, taking his tea and blowing on it to cool it down. Gateau wandered over to the bathroom, "Won't be a couple of minutes, I wanna take a shower too."

Marron nodded, making an agreeing noise into his tea. He set his tea down on the table again, deciding to let it cool down a little. The television listings magazine sitting at the foot of his chair caught his eye. He heard Gateau running the shower... he decided it wouldn't hurt to see what was on the television.

"_Let's see... yesterday was tuesday, so today's wednesday..."_

Marron flipped to the corresponding page in the magazine.

"_What time is it..."_

Marron glanced around the room; on seeing a clock, he noticed it was just coming up to one in the afternoon. Marron's eyes glanced down the page before he realised something.

Almost one on a wednesday afternoon...

He looked up with shock, then got up, rushing into the bathroom. Gateau blinked at him from the shower.

"I'd say something about not wanting you to perve on me but I don't wanna. What's up?"

"Gateau, it's almost one o' clock!"

"Yes?"

"On a wednesday!"

"And?"

"We've missed half a day of college!!"

Gateau looked idly thoughtful as he rinsed soap off his arms.

"Good point. Could you pass me that blue sponge? Thanks. Heh, thought I was forgetting something, couldn't figure out what, musta been that. You feel up to college, then?"

Marron flipped the toilet seat down and sat on the fuzzy cover.

"Perhaps not... I feel a bit..."

"Sore?"

Marron blushed slightly. "A little, yes."

"Well, _yeah_, it _was yer first time and all... how about, once I've finished here, I phone up the collage and say we might not be in for the rest of the week? I can say you got ill and that I wanna look after ya or something. I'm sure they'd understand."_

Marron picked at loose fronds on his towel.

"... For the rest of the week?"

"Yeah... today's wednesday... maybe you wouldn't wanna go in tomorrow... then it'd be friday, and why bother going in on the last day of the week?"

"I don't want to miss too much work, Gateau."

"You sure? It's gonna be a bit weird, me saying yer ill then you turning up perfectly fine on friday... well, we could say you had a stomach bug or something. Just tell people all day on friday that you're sure yer gonna throw up everywhere and they might believe you've been ill."

Marron looked a little unsure. Gateau rinsed himself down, looking a little sardonic as he switched the shower off and stepped out of it.

"Or do you want me to phone the college and tell 'em the truth? That we were up on tuesday night havin' mad sex, that we didn't wake up 'til lunchtime on wednesday, and that my boyfriend's ass might need thursday to recover?"

"Okay, okay, I get your point."

Marron leant back on the cold surface. He waited until his body was used to it before leaning fully back... he smiled over at Gateau.

"I don't regret it, though."

Gateau paused while towelling himself off.

"No? Neither do I. I was a bit worried you might, but... well, ya know. I'm just nervous like that."

Gateau wrapped a towel around his waist, not really seeing reason to, but reckoning that Marron looked good enough like that, so he might as well. Marron just smiled softly back.

"I noticed."

"Yeah... well, hey, since we've suddenly got the time off... I better phone the college, then... whatcha wanna do? We could go out somewhere or something. Or stay in and watch TV, or..." Gateau smirked.

Marron looked up at Gateau's pause. "Or...?"

"Oh, come on. We've got the apartment to ourselves, we just had a Sexual Awakening type thing last night, why not spend the day boinkin' all over the apartment? There's nothing to _stop_ us, anyway. Even if the people from downstairs came knockin' on the door, couldn't really stop us, it's our apartment, isn't it?"

Marron just blinked at Gateau.

"All... over the apartment?"

"Yeah! Do you know how irresistible you look when yer leaning over the sideboard in the kitchen? Or, we could test the springs in the sofa..."

Marron just blushed. Gateau laughed slightly, leaning against the wall. 

"Or we could just watch television. You decide."

Marron stood up, making sure his towel was still firmly attached around his waist. He walked over to Gateau and leant his head on his elbows on Gateau's chest, looking up at him.

"You phone the college... I'll... think about it."

Gateau noticed the slightly sneaky look in Marron's eyes, and smiled widely.

"Heh, aw-riiight!! Yeah, I'll go do that."

So Gateau phoned the college; they seemed, as he thought they would, understanding. Gateau assured them that the two of them would be in on friday to pick up work and such, the people on the other end said they would do their best to gather up that work in the meantime. Gateau thanked them, put the phone down, and rubbed his hands together at the prospect of a day and a half of him and Marron doing whatever they wanted to do. Television was watched, food was eaten, fun was had. Marron wondered if it was an accident when Gateau leant to put his arm around Marron and ended up dropping noodles on him... the fun that Gateau seemed to have manually cleaning them from Marron's chest led Marron to think that it hadn't been an accident after all... but still, it wasn't like Marron didn't enjoy it either. Gateau then suggested icecream, Marron thought 'why not', and several re-enactments of old icecream adverts from the early 90's ensued. Except with towels on instead of jeans. And eventually, with nothing on at all... icecream was cold against a warm body, but both ensured that neither remained cold for long.

Wednesday night came and went, thursday slowly dragged by, filled with all kinds of fun and kinky activities, and eventually thursday night came too; Marron had taken to sharing Gateau's bed, Gateau had no argument whatsoever, and the two of them agreed that the last day and a half had been the most fun that the two of them had had for a long time. And Gateau enjoyed sleeping with Marron in his arms... Marron enjoyed sleeping in Gateau's arms. Despite the overhanging threat of college, work, homework and coursework, the two of them couldn't have been happier.

The following weeks carried on in much the same style, except with college to contend with too. One time, Gateau had suggested just telling the people at college that yes, the two of them were an item, so what? Marron didn't see anything against this in particular, but he didn't see anything for it either; yes, they were an item, but why did everyone else have to know about it? Gateau said it'd be easier to show affection in public if people just knew, Marron just shrugged, "We show affection anyway, and it always gets their tongues wagging. They like it when they've got something to gossip about, Gateau..."

Gateau wondered if Marron was a little nervous about practically coming out to his classmates after previous events... Gateau sighed, decided that perhaps Marron was right, and agreed that they didn't really need to know after all. Whatever they wanted to think, they could.

The weeks rolled by, the months rolled by. Eventually, it was december, and festive spirit was in the air; Gateau and Marron had fun decorating the apartment, getting in a tree, throwing tinsel everywhere, even around each other... Gateau wrapped himself in tinsel and hung baubles from his ears, "I'M A CHRISTMAS TREE!!" And with a suggestive air, "Wanna unwrap my present?"... Marron laughed, "Later, Gateau."

The two of them decorated the apartment, made it look christmas-y and beautiful, made suggestive comments about the shape of candy canes, and had no idea of the potential threat to their relationship that sat a few days away, or of the fact that neither of them would be around to celebrate new year...

The threat came around a couple of days into december; it was just a usual day at college. It was between lessons, and so the halls were quite crowded. But that was just how college was, sometimes it was hard to even find room to breathe.

Marron had just finished getting books from his locker, as he usually did. He had the right books for his next lessons... he noticed, with amusement, how some people seemed to have decorated their lockers for christmas. Tinsel wrapped around the outside, tinsel on the inside, baubles, some even had advent calendars hanging from the backs of the locker doors. Marron made a mental note, him and Gateau needed advent calendars. He'd thought that something was missing from the apartment, yes, they'd need to buy advent calendars. Marron enjoyed the atmosphere around college, though. Girls with tinsel in their hair, people starting to exchange christmas gifts already... college could be tedious, but Marron always enjoyed it when college met head-on with a national holiday. It always brought a different atmosphere to the college, always made it feel a bit special... and when it snowed, that was always nice. Some teachers didn't mind classes getting a little lax towards the end of term, so... Marron enjoyed sitting in a warm classroom watching the snow fall outside while there was chaos around him, people throwing paper airplanes, trying to trip people up with tinsel, asking the teacher who he'd be trying to get under the mistletoe... it was all in good spirit.

Still, lessons still had to be attended, despite the good feeling that descended around the college. Marron closed his locker, wryly noticing that some girls had produced some mistletoe from their locker... he wondered just how many girls would try to catch him out this year. He imagined what would happen if someone set him and Gateau up under the mistletoe... he smiled to himself. If someone did that, well, they'd just have to give them something to look at, wouldn't they? Marron smiled deeper as he imagined the shock on the faces of his classmates as he and Gateau kissed passionately in one of the school doorframes... yes, quite an amusing thought indeed.

Marron glanced at his timetable; one more lesson to go before the end of school. Gateau hadn't been around much at lunch, it was the final sports meet of the year; well, more like the basketball team's christmas bash. No-one wanted to play basketball in those skimpy outfits while it snowed, not even Gateau. Snow was pretty to look at, snow was nice to walk in, "Snow isn't nice when yer freezing yer bollocks off chasing around after a ball when everyone else is inside in the warm watchin' ya", so said Gateau. Marron saw Gateau's reasoning.

Marron awaited the end of school so he could walk home with Gateau; yes, it'd been snowing near-constantly for the last week or so, but most of the time it'd snow during the day and ease off towards the end of the day, leaving snow on the ground but none in the air... Marron mentioned one time to Gateau that it might be a bit romantic to walk in the softly falling snow, Gateau decided that the two of them would have to find each other after school one time and do that. Marron glanced out of a window as he walked through the crowded corridor; it was coming up to the end of the day, but it was already getting a little dark outside, and it still seemed to be snowing... Marron silently smiled to himself, if the snow just kept up for another hour or so, he and Gateau would be able to have that little romantic ideal he'd occasionally dreamt about...

Suddenly, something compelled Marron to turn his head away from the window, and to look at the nearby crowd of people; Marron wasn't sure what, there hadn't been anything untoward happen, no-one had cried or yelled or screamed, no-one'd said anything, just... Marron felt like looking at the crowd of people, just for the sake of it. A strange kind of craving, but one that Marron didn't think twice about obeying; perhaps he wanted to see if any of the girls had strange and amazing tinsel structures in their hair, some of them went quite over the top when it came to personal decoration... perhaps he was looking out for Gateau, perhaps... perhaps... Marron didn't know, he suddenly couldn't concentrate on anything; all he knew was that he'd suddenly had perhaps the most powerful feeling in his life, and as he reached his classroom, he wasn't entirely sure why.

He felt quite shaken as he sat down in his seat and got his books out. One of the girls in the class even seemed to notice his mood, asking him if he was alright... Marron said that he was, but he sounded harried, even to his own ears.

The lesson itself was one of those that, due to the time of year, wasn't really taking itself seriously. Marron would have usually spent a lesson like this staring outside at the snow and thinking about how nice it was that christmas was approaching and that everyone felt excited, or perhaps he would have been thinking about Gateau and what they might do once they got home, or if they'd maybe go out somewhere, but today, all Marron could think about was... that feeling. That feeling... when he'd seen that crowd of people? Was there someone he'd seen that had caused such a reaction within him?

Marron thought about the crowd of people. He thought hard; who had been there? Just the usual college students, no-one really out of the ordinary... not that he could remember, anyway. He felt like there was something out of the ordinary, though... he felt like... he'd seen someone he almost... _remembered, or something... but since he couldn't even remember who it was he'd seen, or recall if he'd seen anyone special at all, how could that have been? The feeling still remained within him, though. His heart beat fast, he... he almost felt like he was blushing. Another girl asked him if he felt alright, he looked a bit ill. The teacher overheard, and agreed that Marron didn't look quite chipper. Marron just glared at them, "I'm alright, really"... they seemed to insist that he didn't, and at his slight emotional outburst, "There's NOTHING WRONG!! Stop hassling me!!", the class had fallen into silence, and the teacher had delicately asked one of the girls to take Marron to the medical room. Marron argued that there wasn't anything wrong with him and that he didn't need to be taken to the medical room, but the teacher argued back that Marron was obviously feeling a bit under the weather, and perhaps needed a little time to calm down. Marron realised he couldn't exactly argue with a teacher, and besides, nothing was really happening in the lesson... maybe he'd be able to consider his thoughts deeper in the medical room, where it was quiet, less distractions..._

Perhaps he'd see that _person_ again... the person who spurred that thought, that feeling... that is, if there was a person after all... Marron let himself be led to the medical room, the girl told the staff member there what was wrong with Marron, then left to go back to the lesson. The staff member asked Marron if he wanted anything, a headache pill or anything, but Marron said he'd be alright, he just needed some time to lie down. The staff member nodded, and left Marron to his own devices.

Marron laid back on the couch-like bed they kept in the medical room. The room wasn't a large one, large enough for the bed and two chairs and little else. There was the door across from the bed, and a window above the bed, half-covered by some blinds. Marron sat up and tugged the blindpull, being careful not to let it snap upwards and get caught... he let the blind go up as far as it would, and lay back on the bed, watching the window. Only blue could be seen out of the window; the darkening blue of the sky and the snow as it fell outside.

Marron sighed loudly. What had... that feeling been? Marron let himself be lulled by the silence in the room, he shut his eyes, falling into a comfortable state of thinking. That feeling seemed to have hit in when he'd seen that group of people, but... would he have had the same feeling if he hadn't have turned round at that moment to look at those people? Was it an atmospheric feeling as opposed to a feeling that was triggered by something? Would he have felt that feeling if he'd been somewhere else in school, maybe sitting in lessons? Marron opened his eyes slightly, feeling confused and unsure.

He was distracted slightly by some voices outside. A girl's voice, asking if the medical room was free... he heard the voice of the staffmember he'd spoken to before saying that no, the medical room wasn't free, there was already someone in there. She then asked if 'you' would like a headache pill; Marron supposed that the staffmember was talking to the girl, but a male voice replied, "... That might help. If it's not any trouble."

Marron sat up suddenly, feeling a feeling he hadn't felt since that fight all those months ago; it was almost exactly the same feeling. A name on his lips that he just _couldn't_ place... a name he couldn't remember... a name that seemed so familiar, but... he just couldn't say the name, the name felt like it was on the tip of his tongue, a name, a title, something familiar, something he remembered... something that he couldn't quite bring himself to say...

Feeling dazed, Marron stood up and walked to the door; it wasn't entirely closed, there was a crack of light that streamed into the otherwise dark room...

Outside, Marron saw the girl first. No-one that Marron recognized. A girl perhaps a little older than Marron himself, brown hair down to below her waist... she seemed fairly ordinary. Marron turned his head a little, the girl was standing next to a boy who leant against the wall outside of the medical room. He seemed the same age as the girl... he had slightly tanned skin, wore a slightly worn looking jacket, jeans... black short hair that fell slightly over brown, innocent-looking eyes... the boy wasn't particularly special in looks, but there was something about him that made Marron step backwards, falling to the bed, hand to his heart, a sudden raging headache ripping throughout him... memories of _something seemed to be occurring to him... he curled up on the bed, feeling as if there was something trying to descend around him that was more powerful than he could ever be... a strange power, a concentration of the feeling he'd felt earlier... a remembrance... a recollection... a feeling that... this was someone he KNEW... scenes and images flashed through his mind, forgotten as soon as they finished..._

"_Sometimes I wish he'd hurry up and be a grown-up..."something... someone else's voice... _his_ voice? That boy's voice? ... "_He's clumsy, lazy, a mess, and he doesn't like girls, but he's still my little..._" something again, something that Marron's mind wouldn't let him hear, almost... he could almost see them in his mind, _them_, someone and someone else, someone... him? Him and... this other person? The feeling he had most was... a feeling of protecting, of wanting to protect... a feeling of wanting to be near to someone no matter what... images, sounds, they ripped through his mind like the headache that made him want to curl up and sleep and never wake... a pain in his heart, in his mind... a pain throughout his body... a memory that... was a memory? That wasn't him, surely? If that was him, then... who was that other person? That word... that word seemed blanked out to Marron's mind, but everything else seemed painfully vivid.... "__... hang in there!! ... please, answer me... ... everybody, please look after him... ... it's okay now...! ... there's nothing to be afraid of anymore... your fear... I will..."_

Marron tried to curl up further within himself, these sudden thoughts, memories if that was what they were, being too painful for him... the feelings within him were almost as if they weren't just memories of a time he couldn't remember... he almost felt like... he was reliving them, even though that was impossible... but he felt like something was leaving him, some power from his body that he wished to go to another, the feeling, the need to protect, the want to protect, the raging pain, that one need and want that shone brighter than any other feeling possible, brighter than his own pain, brighter than his own feelings, all he could feel was the feeling that this person _needed to live, even if it cost him his own life, then they had to live - why? Why did they have to live? Who was this person that was so important to Marron that he felt these overwhelming thoughts for?_

The thoughts were too intense; the headache was too powerful... Marron felt light-headed, like he was going to pass out... Marron had no reason not to, so, closing his eyes, tears shed from them, he did. He didn't realise the word on his lips as he lost consciousness, he didn't realise the final missing part of his mental puzzle... he didn't realise the implication that word had.

"Nii... niisan..."


	4. The Last Christmas

****

Sorcerer Hunters

***

Future Echoes

**

  
~4~  
  


  
  


Marron didn't remember much of what'd happened when he woke up. He woke up about fourty minutes later; the end of school, the bell went. He heard the bell somewhere within himself, but it was when Gateau burst into the room, worried out of his mind, that Marron woke up. He woke up to find himself in Gateau's arms, in Gateau's strong, warm hold... Marron let out a sigh of relief. Gateau looked back at Marron's sound, realising he was awake.

"M-Marron!! Oh... oh, Marron, you're awake!! Damn, why does no-one ever TELL me these things? I only just found out you were here! I waited outside yer classroom for ya, one of the chicks in yer class was like 'Are you waiting for Marron?' and I was like 'Yeah' and she said that she'd taken you to the medical room at the beginning of the lesson, and that you were probably still there... oh man, I was so worried, what's wrong? How come you're here? Are you sick? Ill? Something up? What's wrong? You wanna take tomorrow off? I'll look after you if you want me to... is it a cold? You sick? What's wrong?"

Marron just smiled softly at Gateau. "It's... it's nothing as bad as that. I just felt... not quite up to lessons, I suppose. I ended up snapping at the teacher... the teacher thought I should spend some time in here to calm down. I... I suppose I fell asleep... it's probably just end-of-term blues or something."

"Marron, we still got another two and a half weeks until the end of term, if this is whatcha like this early in december, I dread to think what yer gonna be like once we get to christmas. So, uh, you wanna go home now?"

"Yes."

Gateau nodded, standing up. He slowly let go of Marron, helping him up. "You sure you can walk?"

"I'm not that ill, Gateau. Just... tired." He rubbed at his head, "I've got one hell of a headache, though... I don't remember where I got _that from."_

"I thought sleep usually helped headaches... if you just woke up and you've got a headache, then maybe it's something serious... maybe we should take you to a doctor or something? We could go on the way home."

"No, I'm sure I'm just... I'm sure it'll pass."

Gateau watched Marron carefully, not quite convinced.

"Well... if... if you're _sure_..."

"I'm sure, Gateau! Let's just go home."

Gateau nodded, casting a glance over to the window; he realised it was snowing, and he felt a slight happiness within him. He turned to Marron, nudging his shoulder, speaking quietly.

"Hey... Marron? It's still snowing."

"Really?" Marron looked up to the window, and realised that Gateau was right; it _was still snowing. It was still snowing, and the two of them were about to walk home... Marron hugged himself tightly, smiling warmly. He and Gateau _would_ be able to walk home in the softly falling snow after all..._

Gateau nodded, "Yeah... yeah, it really is."

The two of them left the medical room, telling the offices that Marron seemed okay now, and that they were going home. The people there nodded, and Gateau and Marron left the office block. They walked under the shelter in front of the office buildings, and Marron felt the chill of the cold air on his skin as they walked out into the uncovered atmosphere... it was snowing. It was darker than it'd been before, streetlamps were on... the wind wasn't really blowing, though. The snow just fell directly from the clouds to the floor... Marron looked up, laughing slightly.

"It's really beautiful..."

Gateau threw an arm around Marron's shoulders, holding him close. Marron was slightly surprised, but he let himself be held by Gateau as they walked. Even with his jacket done up, he didn't feel exactly warm... Gateau felt warm, though. Gateau loved him, and that knowledge warmed him too... Gateau nodded at Marron's sentiment.

"Yeah, it IS beautiful, isn't it? Kinda like the person I've got my arm round right now."

"Gateau..." Normally said as a slight warning, but this time... it wasn't. Marron just wanted to say Gateau's name to see how it sounded, almost... Gateau... that name... the person who loved him... the person he loved? It'd been a while, Marron couldn't imagine life with anyone else, he couldn't imagine life without Gateau, he didn't _want_ to imagine life without Gateau... he smiled serenely as he leant a little more into Gateau's arm. Gateau smiled, "You don't want me saying yer beautiful? Sorry, but I won't stop saying that, 'cause you _are beautiful, I love ya, but... you knew that."_

Marron closed his eyes momentarily against Gateau's jacket. He felt safe, Gateau was so warm, so comforting... he opened his eyes slightly, watching the snow as it fell... maybe it was the weather influencing him, but whether it was or not, Marron didn't mind. He felt... suddenly so calm...

"... It doesn't hurt to say it, though... does it? I don't mind it when you say you love me... I love you too."

Gateau stopped slowly in his tracks. Marron stopped with him, things seeming to happen slowly, as if in a dream. Marron smiled gently at Gateau, his voice soft, slightly chiding.

"What? I'm not allowed to say that too?"

"N-not at all! I just... you've... never actually said that... you love me?"

Marron nodded, wrapping one arm behind Gateau, holding onto his shoulder.

"Yes... yes, I do. I love you. I just feel so... I feel so safe with you. I don't want to be with anyone else, and I certainly don't want to be without you... is it wrong to tell you I love you?"

The two of them continued walking, Gateau looking... almost tearful?

"No, it's not wrong at all. Not at all. Wow. I'm so happy... must be something to do with the snow, eh? You said it was romantic... I always thought so too, but... I agree with ya even more now. You told me you loved me when it was snowing... you've made the snow special."

"I've done that much? Well, if that's how you feel. I've always liked the snow."

The two of them walked the rest of the way back to the apartment in general silence... not an uncomfortable silence, though. Marron was happy in Gateau's company, and Gateau was happy in Marron's. The two of them didn't need to speak, they were just happy to _be_ with each other. Their presence was enough to each other.

They walked into the apartment, Marron was happy enough to find that it was warm even when he left the safe warmth of Gateau's arms. They hung their jackets up and stood in the front hallway, just smiling at each other for a few moments. Gateau tacklehugged Marron, the two of them wobbling through to the front room before balance gave way and they fell onto the sofa; they laughed, Marron amused at how Gateau had fallen onto him.

"So, you're feeling like _that_, Gateau?"

Gateau leant up, wrapping his arms around Marron. "I can't help it, I just..." He started smothering Marron with kisses, each word he spoke punctuated by a kiss. "... love... you... so... much...!"

Marron laughed, "I realised, I realised."

Gateau rested his head in the crevice of Marron's neck for a few moments.

"So you feel okay now?"

"Gateau, I feel better than okay... I feel... I... there isn't a word to describe how I feel. I don't care that... that... I don't care about anything right now. Just you."

Gateau nodded, looking up slightly. "Marron, if you knew how much I wanted you right now..."

"Gateau, you _have_ me... if it's any consolation... I probably want you just as much."

The snow still fell outside as general conversation moved to particular conversation... conversation died down, and the general moved to the particular moved to the _very_ particular, soft kisses became urgent, 'I love you' became a shared phrase, said more by Marron this time, sounding almost panicked as Gateau took him further... but he was so sure. As the two of them rested on the sofa afterwards, Marron wondered... how could he have ever thought anything else? How could he ever have done anything other than love Gateau?

Gateau rested his head on Marron's chest, nuzzling it slightly. Marron slipped his arms around Gateau's neck, wondering if he'd fall asleep there...

"Gateau, if you want to fall asleep on my chest, I don't mind, but... I do have homework to do, if not now, then in the morning..."

"Mmmnh... I don't wanna move. Let's just stay like this for a little longer...?"

"... of course."

By this point, Marron had all but forgotten the events of earlier; the feeling he'd felt when he'd been in the crowd of people, the feelings he couldn't explain in class... he certainly didn't remember the sudden frightening recollections he'd had of... whatever they'd been of. He was too happy in Gateau's embrace to worry about that boy from earlier. He wouldn't remember him until the next day at college.

In the morning, Marron had his homework done, he was ready for college... Gateau remembered that Marron had seemed ill yesterday... that'd passed, but he still wanted to make sure, so he asked Marron if Marron wanted to stay home and have Gateau look after him... Marron said he liked the idea, but college was college and despite the time of year, there were still classes to attend, there was still homework to do, still deadlines... Gateau laughed, "Okay, okay, I get it, I get it."

The two of them walked to school; the snow seemed more of a constant now, it was snowing as they walked to school, it'd snow as they walked home from school. The schoolday was a usual one... lessons in the morning, breaktime, lesson before lunch, lunchtime, lessons after lunch... nothing unusual. Breaktime and lunchtime was spent with Gateau, spent in conversation, spent relaxing... Marron didn't even think of the boy from before during those times. It was only on the way from fourth lesson to fifth lesson, Marron remembered; he remembered because... he saw..._ him_...

The feeling wasn't as powerful today, but it brought recollection of how powerful his feelings had been, and it worried him. Marron remembered how intense those feelings had been... he couldn't remember the feelings themselves, he couldn't remember exactly what it was that he'd thought, but he remembered that he'd thought... something... and he realised now; he must have seen _that boy in the crowd of people yesterday. It was that boy that'd induced those feelings then, it was seeing that boy that induced those feelings when he'd been in the medical room. Marron was worried because he didn't understand these feelings, but... definitely, it was something to do with this boy. Somehow, for some reason, this boy was triggering off... some kind of feeling within Marron. It worried him even more that he didn't know what those feelings were... a feeling of... wanting to be close to this boy? Wanting to be near to him? Wanting to love him? Wanting to feel his love back? As Marron considered this in class, his worry grew. Last night had been wonderful, last night had been him and Gateau... that was the one thing that Marron was sure of. Gateau loved Marron, and he loved Gateau back. That was a constant, that was the thing Marron was sure of more than anything else, more than college, more than work, more than anything, he was sure of Gateau. And if Gateau loved him so much, and he was sure that he loved Gateau back, then what was he doing with thoughts like this running through his head?! The thought that, perhaps... there was someone else he loved? Someone else he wanted to love? No! No, that couldn't be... Marron thought of Gateau as he worked. He thought of Gateau, how Gateau was... he thought of when they'd walked home, he thought of how safe he'd felt in Gateau's arms... he thought of the feelings he felt when they couldn't take it any longer, and they just had to lose themselves in each other's arms... sex with Gateau was an absence of normal thought like nothing else, like so much else with Gateau, he'd been unsure at first, but... now that he and Gateau were so sure of their relationship, Marron felt nothing against losing himself totally in Gateau's arms, letting the feelings grow inside him, letting them take over... knowing nothing but the feeling of Gateau's body against his own, the feeling of Gateau's arms around him, Gateau's kisses on his body, the feeling of Gateau on him, inside him, around him, surrounding him, taking him, the loss of feeling that was letting himself _be_ taken... in those moments, there was nothing else. Just Marron and Gateau. Those moments when Marron was far enough taken to almost scream Gateau's name... it was like now, but without conscious thought. During that time, there was just he and Gateau and Gateau's love for him... his love for Gateau... the knowledge that they trusted each other so implicitly enough to bring on such power within Marron... how... _how_ could Marron even THINK of loving anyone other than Gateau?_

Marron gently tapped his pencil on his desk as he tried to balance him trying to work out the problem on the sheet in front of him alongside him trying to work out his feelings. It angered him, almost. Gateau loved him, he loved Gateau, what was there to work out? Marron sighed; it _did_ anger him. How could he be on the brink of questioning such feelings he was so sure of? How could he even think about doing that... was it because of that boy? Had that boy brought this on? He didn't even know the other boy's name... he'd barely had a good look at him, even. He'd heard his voice, but only a sentence. The boy was... compared to Gateau, the boy was nothing to Marron. How could he be anything more? There'd been absolutely no interaction whatsoever... Marron didn't even know why he was thinking of the boy at that moment. He didn't know why the boy haunted his thoughts so much. A name... did he even know the boy's name? Marron thought back to the time in the medical room. He tried to remember, but he didn't remember much from that time... certainly not a name to call that boy by.

The teacher asked Marron a question, and Marron did his best to answer; he eventually answered the question, but it annoyed him that he'd almost been caught out like that... he made a resolve to himself. No matter how hard it was, he wanted to put all thoughts of that boy to the back of his mind. Maybe he could just forget about him... there wasn't anything there, it was totally irrational... perhaps forgetting about him would be the best thing.

School ended for the day, Gateau and Marron walked home. It snowed, but the day didn't seem as special as the one before it; Marron found that, the more he tried to put thoughts of that boy out of his mind, the more the thoughts seemed to spring up. Even with Gateau, he couldn't stop thinking of the boy, and that was worrying in itself; normally, the thought of being with Gateau was enough to push anything else out of the way... Gateau seemed to notice that Marron was a bit preoccupied.

"Marron, you okay?"

"Uh? Oh, um... yes, I'm alright. Why?"  
"You seemed kinda distant, lost in thought or something. Whatcha thinkin' about?"

Marron stared ahead for a moment, trying to work out what to tell Gateau; he couldn't tell Gateau the truth, it seemed so stupid, and... the fact that he was thinking so intensely, thinking like _that_ about someone that wasn't Gateau... Marron was almost certain that Gateau'd feel hurt. Marron didn't want to hurt Gateau... he just sighed.

"I... I don't know. I just feel a bit distant."

"Oh, okay."

Gateau seemed genuinely satisfied with Marron's answer. Marron was a little amazed by this, but glad that Gateau hadn't pressed the subject too much.

Not much else was said on the way home, and not much else was said once the two were in the apartment, either. Somehow, Marron just couldn't think of anything to _say_, almost. He wanted to talk to Gateau as Gateau was talking to him, he wanted to respond as easily back to Gateau as Gateau did to him, but... somehow, he just _couldn't._

Marron wondered if a shower would help. He told Gateau he was going for a shower, Gateau agreed, sitting in front of the television, watching the news.

Marron debated locking the bathroom door, but decided against it... Gateau might only worry more if he went to tell Marron something and found the door locked. Marron felt like there was already a door locked between he and Gateau, a door locked in his mind... Gateau seemed easygoing enough so far, he didn't know if he'd suspected anything... Marron didn't want Gateau to suspect, Marron didn't want Gateau to worry... Marron didn't want him to suspect his strange feelings.

The shower was started, warm water raining down on Marron's naked body. He swept over his body with a lathered sponge... still remembering times in the past, remembering how Gateau's hands felt on him, Gateau's hands, Gateau's body... Gateau...

Marron wondered if he should have been surprised when Gateau walked into the bathroom, wearing nothing but a smirk, and stepped into the shower alongside Marron. Probably. He wasn't, though. Not really. Something like that... something like that was a typical Gateau kind of thing to do. Marron just asked Gateau what he was doing; Gateau didn't seem to notice the... almost the cold tone in Marron's voice... he just smiled, those hands over Marron's body again, "You've been distant and stuff all afternoon, preoccupied with something... I wanna take yer mind off whatever it is you're worrying about, is that so much to ask? It's gotta be something bad where you won't even talk about it."

There was something undeniably exciting about being so suddenly taken against the shower wall, something exciting about Gateau's groans being echoed by the neverending rain of the shower, something exciting about how it was all Marron could do to just be held there and be taken... his hands tried to grip the shower wall, but there was nothing to hold onto, the water and steam just served to make the surface less stable than it usually would be... Marron couldn't do anything except give himself to Gateau. Gateau's plan seemed to work, it _did_ seem to take Marron's mind off of whatever it was he'd been thinking about. Marron didn't know what he felt... the situation was different, and Gateau wondered why he'd never had Marron in the shower before. Marron was too busy burning with conflicting feelings to think about things so mundane as _that... Gateau's name seemed almost alien to his lips, that name sounded almost painful, it _felt_ almost painful as it ripped itself from his throat... Marron rarely showed quite that depth of emotion, not even during sex, but that time, he did scream Gateau's name. A sudden feral scream as he came, desperate for something to hold onto as his orgasm tore itself from his body... there was nothing to hold onto, though. Gateau held onto him tightly, so tightly, Marron wanted to hold onto Gateau, but Gateau's position behind him made that impossible. Suddenly deeper, suddenly harder, the burning within him... Marron's helpless climax tipped Gateau off, the burning inside Marron became that bit more intense as Gateau's burning joined with his own. Marron's scream almost frightened Gateau; Gateau called Marron's name, shouted it almost as per usual, but... Marron never __screamed like that. He'd cried Gateau's name, he'd yelled it, he'd half-screamed it, but... never had it been quite that passionate. Never had it been quite that... almost bestial. Almost, Gateau thought, like... Marron was losing his mind, or something... of course, it just brought Gateau a type of pride, knowing he'd brought Marron to __that intense a climax._

Marron fell from Gateau's arms, falling to his knees in the shower, panting and gasping uncontrollably as he tried to bring some kind of order back to his mind. Gateau tried helping Marron up, but Marron didn't seem to want to comply with this gesture... Gateau pulled Marron up, holding him close.

"Hey, Marron, are you okay now?"

Gateau turned the shower down a notch or two, preventing the hard water from attacking the two so much. Marron's eyes were closed... Gateau jogged Marron in his arms a little, "Marron?"

Marron's eyes opened; he looked... almost weak... he nodded.

"Y-yes... I'm sorry if I worried you... _I'm sorry I can't tell you what I'm feeling..._"

"No, I mean, are you okay now? That was... you were really gone for a moment there!!" Gateau sounded slightly awe-struck. Marron just blinked at Gateau... water hit him, water dripped down him, water slipped it's way around his body... and the only thing holding Marron up was Gateau's arms, but... Marron didn't think even for a second that he was going to fall. Marron sighed deeply, then attempted a smile.

"I like to be able to lose myself in your arms, Gateau."

"There's really gotta be something you wanna forget about if you wanna lose yerself _that much... oh well, I guess you have homework or something to do now?"_

Marron nodded, letting himself be pulled out of the shower. He shakingly put a foot to the floor, leaning his weight onto that foot. Gateau helped him as he stepped out, and passed him a towel. The two dried each other off, Marron fought back a yawn as he towelled his hair down. Gateau passed him a brush, "Don't want it getting tangled."

That night, Marron had fallen asleep easily enough, but Gateau couldn't quite sleep. Marron looked calm enough as he slept, but... Gateau remembered how he'd been on the way home... how Marron had seemed so distant... and how he'd been in the shower... Gateau almost shuddered. He'd never seen Marron quite like that, and tied with his mood from before, it was starting to worry Gateau. If Marron had just been preoccupied, then Gateau might not have worried. Even if Marron had just been that far gone, then he might not have worried. But Gateau had a feeling that Marron's quietness from day to day life and his loudness in the shower were connected... was there something Marron was hiding? Marron never hid things from Gateau, Gateau never hid things from Marron... there were never things that _needed_ hiding from each other... Gateau wondered if they'd _ever_ hid things from each other... well, there was that whole thing where Gateau'd called Marron's name that time ago, but that was ancient history. And there was the whole thing with that fight that Marron had attempted to hide, but... that'd been a hard thing to hide, and that'd come out eventually. If Marron had something to hide, and he was hiding it from Gateau, then it had to be something... worth hiding... Gateau quietly worried as he wondered just what Marron would _want_ to hide from Gateau. Gateau didn't feel that Marron was the type to hop off and have random affairs, though if that happened, Marron might be worried about it... Gateau sighed, hoped it wasn't that, and hoped it'd keep until the weekend. If he was going to try and get something out of Marron, then it should wait until he had time to even attempt that... schooldays weren't the kind of day to do that kind of thing. Then Gateau slept.

While Gateau worried about Marron, Marron spent his time worrying about himself. He'd hoped that the thoughts and feelings would eventually go away, but... they didn't. He found himself glancing around in crowded areas of college, hoping he might see that boy, wondering what he'd do if he did... it still made him angry that he could even think of someone else when he should be thinking of Gateau, but trying to stop himself thinking of that person was impossible.

After a while, Gateau almost wished that the uncontrollable Marron from that time in the shower would come back. He didn't like to think it at first - he wrote his feelings off, Marron was just having a bad day, Marron wasn't in the mood but didn't want to say no to Gateau... no, Gateau had the feeling that, should Marron not be in the mood for sex, he'd say no. Gateau often tried gentle persuasion that led to rampant horniness, but... he liked to think that Marron'd say no if he really _wanted_ to say no. On that count... Marron just... didn't seem as _into it anymore. The two of them were sat quietly watching television as the thought occurred to Gateau... it took a second to think of, but once he thought of it, he couldn't dispel the thought from his mind. Marron looked normal enough, quietly attentive to the television, occasionally sipping from a mug of steaming tea to his side... it was a usual activity, but Gateau realised, with a leaden feeling within him, that this was how he felt; Marron just hadn't seemed... it wasn't that he wasn't active during sex, Marron was reasonably active, the yielding, the gasping, the moaning, the touching, the clasps, the gripping onto Gateau's back... but there was... almost something missing. Something Gateau couldn't quite put his finger on... Gateau turned his attention from the television, watching Marron with some suspicion, wondering just what it was he was feeling._

Gateau hadn't said anything to Marron that night; he'd sat against Marron in bed, Marron had looked at him with kind eyes, "Tonight... you don't want to?", climbing onto his chest... yes, Marron was still active. Gateau had smiled back, he couldn't resist that smile, "I want to if you want to"... Marron had wanted to, but Gateau couldn't help but feel... Marron seemed to be holding back. Gateau wasn't expecting Marron to turn into a screaming orgasmic being like that time before, but he seemed... quiet. Almost... too quiet. Not everyone was noisy during sex, Gateau understood that, but he liked to think that he was generally used to Marron's bedside manner, had something happened to make him change? What would make someone change like that? Yes... Marron was holding back.

Gateau realised what was amiss as he held Marron close, feelings building up inside of him... he gasped Marron's name, unconsciously expecting to hear his own name gasped back... he didn't. Marron sounded breathless enough, "Yess" and "ohhh" and "god..." but no "Gateau..."... Gateau pulled Marron to him with tight fingers, gasping Marron's name with his release; he didn't sound as exuberant as he usually did, but... somehow, he couldn't quite bring himself to give himself to Marron if Marron wasn't willing to give himself back... sex was sex, but if there wasn't some connection there, then...

Gateau felt even more confused as the two of them slept that night.

It didn't stop there.

The optimistic part inside Gateau hoped that perhaps those times before were just... yeah, he'd caught Marron on a bad day, or something. He left it a few days, sleeping before Marron came into the room... sometimes he'd feel Marron pushing at his arm, but he wouldn't respond. He wanted to lay off the sex for a couple of days, but he didn't know how exactly he should say that to Marron... Marron seemed to accept the enforced celibacy with no questioning, and the days were usual enough.

Marron seemed to notice that Gateau was hardly himself, though. He'd ask Gateau if there was something wrong... Gateau'd say "No, no, nothing's wrong... what about you?"... Marron'd be a little confused, but he didn't say there was anything wrong either.

Gateau noticed, with a feeling of hopelessness, that they'd ended up hiding things - hiding themselves? - from each other. Marron was hiding whatever it was he was hiding, and Gateau was hiding his worry on whatever Marron was feeling.

The days advanced, and Gateau's thoughts of no sex melted away; the two of them ended up having sex several times, and it displeased Gateau that his theory was proved wrong; even after almost a week, Marron didn't seem to have changed... or he had changed, changed into something that Gateau wasn't sure he liked.

Things eventually came to a head on the weekend before the end of the college term.

The two of them sat in the front room, watching television, drinking hot drinks... the snow fell outside, it wasn't an unusual day. Gateau wasn't sure what'd made Marron bring the subject up in the first place, the only thing that mattered was that he _had_, and, after however long it'd been that Gateau'd been worrying, it shocked him somewhat.

"Gateau... this might sound strange, but... recently... you've almost... been _cold to me... it's probably me noticing things that aren't there, but... I just felt I had to mention something..."_

Gateau stopped in mid-drink.

Marron dared to call _him_ cold?! Gateau was totally thrown for a moment, setting his mug down, trying to say what he'd thought without sounding angry.

"Marron, you... you're saying that _I'M_ acting cold?! God, you're confusing me... Marron, the last week or so... you're the one who's been cold, not me! I... you never say anything, but there's just something wrong, I can tell! I almost don't wanna ask... if you're hiding something from me... do I even wanna know what type of thing it is that you'd hide from me?"

Marron just glanced at Gateau, wide-eyed... Gateau reached to the television, switching it off. He sighed, a heavy sigh. "I guess this was coming for a while... you gonna say anything, or what?" He sat back down.

Marron set his own drink aside.

"Gateau... I... I won't deny, there's been something... happening."

"With someone else?" Gateau suggested it before he realised the implications of what he was suggesting; Marron didn't realise the implications of his reaction either.

"In a way, I-"

Gateau stood up silently. Marron looked up at him, "G-Gateau!"... Gateau walked over to Marron, standing in front of him, looking at him with a sad, distanced look.

"I should have... I... it was someone else, right? I... I knew I wasn't good enough for you. Who... was it? Who is it? Is it... another girl? That chick with the purple hair? Her friend with the glasses? I... I shoulda known our happiness wouldn't last forever."

Marron looked up, disbelieving.

"Gateau, are you saying-"

"You've got another lover, right? That's why you've been acting all distanced and crap with me. Right?"

"Gateau, no! Why would I want anyone else when I've got you?!"

Gateau frowned, confused. What was Marron trying to say?

"M-Marron, what... what're you saying, then?"

"Just... let me speak, Gateau. Didn't I say that I loved you? I wouldn't say something like that without meaning it, and I certainly wouldn't squander that by risking it by having that kind of relationship with someone else... Gateau, I _couldn't have that kind of relationship with someone else... you're the person I love."_

Gateau just watched Marron, relief settling over him somewhat. "Marron, I'm glad... but... if that's... if that's how you feel, then... what do you mean when... it's someone else? Something happening with someone else?"

"It's my own feelings, I... Gateau, I... I say this, and... I don't want you to think that I think any less of you. I don't want you to think that I don't love you, in case that's how it sounds... please, just listen to me, and remember that... I love you, I always want to love you... just because of what I say... doesn't mean that I love you any less. I only want you, Gateau..."

Gateau sighed, closing his eyes.

"Marron, just _say_ it... sounds like you're scared of getting to the point."

"Perhaps I am."

There was silence in the apartment for a moment. Marron just glanced silently ahead of him, not seeming to be willing to say anything... Gateau reached over and got his mug from beside where he'd been sitting, "While you decide what you wanna say, I'll get another coffee... Marron, I'm getting a bad feeling. I... I don't want to stop loving you... I can't work out what you wanna say, I'm happy you weren't off with someone else, but... I'm scared. Sorry, but I am. Just... you decide what you wanna say."

Marron sighed quietly, resting his head on caged hands. How to express the confused emotions inside him... was there even a way to explain them to Gateau in a way that he'd understand? Could Gateau understand the way Marron felt?

Gateau seemed to be taking his time in the kitchen; Marron got up, walking over to the kitchen, then decided there was no other way to describe it other than the truth.

"Gateau... there's... physically... no-one else. H-However... around college... there's someone... when I see them, I feel... something... I can't describe it. It's like I should remember that person, there's feelings and thoughts attached to that person within me, but... the person.... the person isn't someone that I know. I can't have seen him more than a few times, but whenever I see them, I have that feeling... I want... almost like... I want to protect them, I want to make sure that they're never in danger... I don't know what kind of person that person is, I don't know who they are... I just... I have this overwhelming feeling sometimes... when you came to find me in the medical room that time, that was why I was there... that time, going to lessons... that was when I first saw him. In that lesson, I just couldn't concentrate... even other people noticed that I couldn't concentrate. I... I don't understand my feelings... you're the person I love, I shouldn't think of anyone else, should I? I don't know if it's love, but... the feeling of wanting to be close to that person, the feeling of wanting that person... sometimes more than anything else... is that a kind of love? I don't understand it, and it scares me... it makes no sense. I don't even _know_ that person, but still... I... I just... I don't know how I feel. That person should be important to me, the feelings move me so much... I need to protect... that person... but I don't even know who they are. I try to put thoughts of that person to the back of my mind, but the more I try to escape those thoughts, the more they grow and multiply within me... every day..."

"... that feeling..."

Marron just looked at Gateau. Gateau had been respectfully silent as Marron spoke, letting him say what he felt needed to be said... other than those two words, Gateau said nothing himself.

The kettle boiled. Gateau didn't seem to notice. The silence seemed oppressive.

"Gateau... the kettle boiled..."

Marron just stood by the door, worried by Gateau's lack of reaction. Gateau was standing over the sink, a usual waiting-for-the-kettle-to-boil position... something about his body language seemed... broken, though.

Eventually, a quiet voice reached Marron's ears. Broken, like Gateau's body language.

"... I don't _care_..."

"Ga... teau? _He sounds... almost like he's near tears?_"

Gateau suddenly turned around. Marron looked up at him, but Gateau was avoiding Marron's line of sight... Gateau didn't want to look at Marron... Marron frowned, looking worried. What did that mean, if Gateau didn't even want to look at him? He had to remember... no matter what, Marron loved Gateau, he'd told him that... Gateau... _had_ to remember that...

Gateau said nothing as he approached Marron... the empty look in Gateau's eyes hurt Marron almost as much as the confusion over his feelings did. He hadn't wanted to hurt Gateau, but... he didn't seem to have managed that. Gateau looked hurt, and it hurt Marron that Gateau looked hurt... looked so empty...

Gateau's hands went to Marron's shoulders; Marron didn't know what Gateau was trying to do, so he started to walk backwards; walking backwards eventually led to him standing against one of the sofa arms. He almost fell against the half-surface, he tried to steady himself, but Gateau's position against him was difficult... he ended up slipping to the floor as opposed to falling. Gateau watched, looking almost emotionless... Marron looked up at him.

"Gateau, what...?"

Marron didn't even know what he wanted to say. What was Gateau doing? What did Gateau want? What was Gateau thinking? Marron was quietened by Gateau's hand around his neck, pushing it to the floor; he shifted around on the floor so that his position against the sofa wasn't so uncomfortable. Marron looked around him, worried by Gateau's motions... he hadn't _said_ anything... Gateau dropped to a kind of kneel, his legs on either side of Marron's legs... Gateau's legs pinned his legs down, and Gateau's arm pinned his top half down. Marron's hands went instinctively to Gateau's arm; Marron felt a rush in his chest as Gateau's hand went to his chest, slowly running down it, reaching the edge of Marron's trousers... dull realisation hit Marron like a thunderbolt, he pushed at Gateau's hand, enough to free his neck.

"Gateau..."

Gateau's hand went to Marron's arm, holding that down instead.

"... Please, Gateau... no... not if you're angry... please... _I don't need to plead to him, surely? But what is it that's going through his mind..."_

Gateau seemed to realise his position, and suddenly, to Marron's surprise, the tears started. A gasp as Gateau realised what he was implying with his position and his movements... he fell against Marron, gripping Marron's shirt with his hands, pressing his head to it, letting his tears dampen Marron's shirt.

Marron put a hand to the back of Gateau's head, stroking Gateau's hair.

"Gateau!"

"I... I'm not angry... I just... oh god, Marron, don't... think anything of... I couldn't have... but for us to even _be_ here like this... oh, jesus... I... I'm not angry, I just... I just wish I had your mind with me as well as your body! And those _feelings you have for that person, whoever that person is..."_

"Gateau, I still love you, no matter what, I still love you, don't forget that..."

Gateau sat up slightly, looking at Marron with tearstained eyes.

"Marron... those feelings you're having for that person... the feeling that you... the feeling, is it that... you feel like you _know_ the person? It makes no sense to you, but you just feel that you know them... you want them to know you, you want to know that person... you feel that... a part of you is missing, because you don't know that person? You feel like your life won't be complete until you know that person... and all you can feel is an overwhelming feeling to want that person... you don't know why, but you feel... almost like it's _destiny_ or something stupid like that... like it was just... meant to be..."

Marron blinked at the ceiling.

"Gateau, that's almost the feeling exactly, how did you-"

The intensity of Gateau's tears seemed to increase, as did Gateau's hold on Marron's shirt.

"Marron, those are the feelings I had when I first saw YOU... the feeling that I knew you from someplace... wanting to be near you, wanting to know you, wanting to protect you... those are the feelings I had for YOU, and you're... having the exact same feelings for someone else... how can... oh, god... if the feelings I had for you are the feelings you have for this other person... Marron, how can you stand to say you love me? If it's enough to make you change this much, how can you even stand to want to be close to me? There's someone else out there you love... and I can't help that. I can't help it if you don't love me anymore."

Marron pushed Gateau from him; Gateau dumbly sat up... the two of them looked at each other, tearstains down Gateau's cheeks, Gateau vaguely surprised to see Marron's eyes shimmering with tears... but there was... anger on his face? When Marron slapped Gateau, he mentally nodded to himself, yes, that was anger on Marron's face. He slowly put a hand to where Marron had slapped him, while Marron threw his arms around Gateau, tears suddenly running down his face too.

"Gateau, don't even suggest that, don't even _suggest_ it! Gateau, how many times do I have to say it... _you're the person I love, I _can't_ love anyone else... that person... how can I love them? I don't know them, I've never spoken to them..."_

"How did I know I loved you when I'd never even spoken to you? I don't know. Same reason."

"Gateau, I don't WANT to stop loving you... just because there's someone out there who's causing the most confusing feelings within me... because of that... am I supposed to just... stop loving you? I don't _want to stop loving you... I don't __want to... I don't care who that person is... even if they're someone I'm destined to be with, I... I don't care, I'll fight destiny, I... Gateau... I want to be with _you_... __you are the person I __love... Gateau, I love you... I love __you!"_

Marron became increasingly more tearful as he spoke. After his outburst, neither Gateau nor Marron could think of anything to say to each other... Gateau just leant his head back against Marron's chest, letting Marron hold his head... he sighed, wanting to rid himself of the raging pain within him.

"... I wish I knew what to say. Really wish I knew what to say."

"There shouldn't be anything _to_ say... I still love you. Nothing's changed..."

"Marron, everything's changed. You say you love me, but... there's also this other person... when I hold you and make love to you and have you with me... can I be sure... is it you, or just some... shell of you, dreaming of that other person? How... can things be the same?"

Marron didn't have anything to say to that. This time, he cried. Gateau sat up, helping Marron up... Marron cried against Gateau's chest, Gateau just held him. There really wasn't anything to say; both knew that something had changed between the two of them... it'd changed when Marron had first noticed that boy across the crowded corridors of the college that afternoon.

Gateau didn't want to say the one thing that he felt he wanted to say... Marron had... tried to say what he felt, and even if Gateau felt hurt, even if Marron felt confused... Gateau didn't want to confuse him further. Gateau didn't want to ask Marron if the person in question was a boy of about seventeen, a boy with slightly tanned skin, with messed-up black hair that seemed to fall over his eyes... a boy with wide, innocent-looking brown eyes... Gateau didn't want to even suggest to Marron that this was someone he'd seen... and felt that he knew too. His feelings weren't as intense as Marron said that his were, but... there was a recognition there. Gateau didn't know what it meant, and he didn't want to confuse Marron any further... as Marron cried in his arms, he cried a few tears of his own, resting his head on top of Marron's head...

The knock at the door didn't seem to register on either Marron or Gateau for a good couple of minutes. The person, whoever it was, seemed determined... Gateau sighed, slowly pulling himself up, using the sofa to steady himself. "I should... check who that is."

Marron just nodded, pulling himself to a sitting position against the sofa. As Gateau went to open the door, Marron decided to just sit on the sofa... he was slightly amazed to note that his legs were shaking as he stood up... it felt refreshing to sit back down again.

Gateau returned after a few moments; Marron was about to ask "Who was at the door?", but the fact that Gateau was accompanied by someone answered Marron's question immediately.

Marron just looked at the woman. She looked... middle aged, perhaps? Marron wasn't sure. She looked like a businesswoman, but again, Marron wasn't sure... despite having never seen her before, Marron felt... some kind of kindness coming from her. He felt he could trust her.

Gateau motioned to the seats and the sofa. "Um, take a seat..."

The woman nodded, taking one of the seats to the side of the sofa. Gateau joined Marron on the sofa; the woman smiled.

"Gateau... Marron... the two of you are... happy, aren't you?"

"Y-yeah... pretty much..."

"Both of you've been crying, I can tell. Marron... you... feel that there's someone other than Gateau, don't you? Someone else that you know... someone that should be special to you, but you don't know why..."

Marron looked shocked.

"H-How...?"

"Gateau. The feelings that Marron is having for this person cause you pain, don't they? Not just because of what it means to your relationship... but also because... you know who Marron's talking about, don't you? Someone you've seen that you feel you know... not such intense feelings as what Marron feels, but... there's still something there. Am I wrong?"

Marron looked at Gateau, shocked. Gateau didn't look at Marron; he was too busy looking at Big Mama, shocked, amazed. He just blinked, unable to speak for a few moments.

"How did you... know?"

"Gateau, you had feelings like that too?"

Big Mama just smiled at the two of them. "Perhaps I was too early... Gateau, I do assume you were going to tell Marron of your feelings, right?"

"I... I didn't know if I should, he... seemed so confused, I didn't want to confuse him further... but how do you know that it's the same person? We don't even know his name!"

"It's a situation larger than the two of you, larger than... well. You two aren't the only people to have your heart touched by that person... he's waiting for you. Waiting for both of you... you should go and meet him."

Gateau and Marron did look at each other; they looked back at Big Mama, speaking almost as one.

"Waiting... for us?"

"Yes. On the other side of the bridge over the road near the center of town, there's an area where there's christmas trees and benches... do you know where I mean?" Marron and Gateau nodded. Big Mama smiled, nodding back at them. "... You'll find him somewhere around there."

She stood up. "We'll meet each other again soon."

Gateau and Marron stood up, accompanying Big Mama to the front door. Gateau held the door open for her, pausing before she left.

"What's your name? Who... who are you? How come you knew about... that?"

"You'll..." She smiled, slightly sadly. "You'll know in time, but by that time, it'll be too late... both of you, just trust me. Go to the center of town... you'll find the person you're looking for."

With that, she left.

Marron and Gateau just stood there, amazed. They glanced at each other, Gateau being the first one to raise the obvious point.

"Marron, would it be stupid if I said I felt I knew _her_ from somewhere too?"

"I was about to ask you the exact same thing, Gateau. She said to trust her... can we trust her?"

Gateau nodded. "Yeah, I think so... there was something... kinda comforting about her, wasn't there? Like a mother or something. We don't have anything to lose, do we? Might as well go to where she said... that's the station, isn't it?"

Marron was already getting his and Gateau's jackets off of the coat rail next to the front door. He passed Gateau his coat, putting his own on. Gateau helped him put his coat on, then put his own on. He shut the front door, letting Marron go in front.

"Ya gotta admit, it's weird, though... I mean... how can she have known? How'd she know our names? I didn't say who we were or anything... and it's weird how she just happened to turn up _then_, ya know?"

"I agree... that makes me believe her more, somehow. She knew the right moment to appear in front of us, she knew who we were, she knew of the situation... and also, the feeling that we both knew her... whatever it leads to, I want to believe her."

The two of them walked down the stairs that ran along the side of the apartment block. It seemed to occur to Gateau for the first time...

"Marron, if we're going to meet this guy... what do you think's gonna happen? There's all those feelings you had for him, and the feelings I had for him too... that woman seemed convinced it was the same person... what if it isn't?"

"The person I saw was... maybe in my year... maybe older..."

"Tanned skin?"

"Black hair, brown eyes..."

"Jeans and a jacket?"  
"Yes."

Gateau let out a noise of amazement, throwing his arm around Marron's shoulder. "Huh, well, looks like we didn't haveta worry. I'd seen him around college too... got some kinda feeling from him. Not strong enough to send me to the medical room, but a feeling, anyway... like I knew him. Some kinda connection there, at least. Guess it's the same person... but, Marron... what are we gonna do once we meet him? 'Hi! We think we know you! So who ARE you, anyway?'"

Marron was quietly in thought for a few moments.

"I'm not sure. I think it's best that we meet him, though... we can meet him first and let the other things come later. For that woman to even know... I don't know. There's a lot that's uncertain, but... I have a feeling... once we find that person... things might become a lot clearer."  
"You think? Well, I sure hope so."

The two of them made their way to the station in the center of town, idly musing on the situation... they couldn't work out who that woman was, why she felt... like she did... from her appearance, perhaps she was a teacher from college the two of them had had at some point? But for that, how did she know so much about the situation? It didn't add up, Marron just assured Gateau that, whoever the woman was, he trusted her implicitly; if she made it seem like things would become clearer soon, then... perhaps they might. Gateau wasn't sure, but willing to put his trust into the woman, and willing to trust Marron's trust.

The two of them reached the area that Big Mama had spoken of, but didn't find anyone there; Marron still assured Gateau that he'd be there... he _had to be there, the woman had said he would be... Gateau wasn't sure, but said he'd give the guy another ten minutes. The two of them waited for that ten minutes, but no-one showed up. Gateau grinned as Marron checked his wristwatch for the umpteenth time that minute._

"Gettin' too dependant on seeing loverboy?"

"Gateau, it's not like that!"

"Yeah, well, whatever it is... ya think the lady got it wrong? Maybe she meant another park or something like that. Ya think he's gonna be here? I mean, think about it. Unless she's going round the town rounding people up, how do we know he's even gonna be here at all?"

"But she seemed so _sure_..."

"Okay, if it's makin' you so edgy, we can give it another ten minutes... if no-one shows after that, I wanna go for a drink or something, while we're out. Okay?"

"Well... I suppose..."

Marron was indeed edgy, but to his displeasure, no-one showed... still he glanced at his watch. Gateau put his arms to Marron's shoulders, pushing him back in the direction of the road and the bridge.

"C'mon, Marron. He's not gonna show, okay? I'm thirsty."

Marron seemed quietly disillusioned as the two of them started the fateful journey over the bridge.

"She said that he'd be there, though..."

"Just where do we have to go to meet him?"

Marron sighed, "He must be nearby."

Gateau just glanced down at Marron, wondering how determined Marron was... Gateau idly wondered if this'd turn into a town-wide search. With an inner smile, he decided he wouldn't be surprised if it did.

At that moment, Marron and Gateau walked past two other figures; nothing dawned on them at first, but after just the first glance out of the corner of their eyes... suddenly, those feelings of familiarity, those feelings of recognition hit home again, suddenly strong, suddenly powerful... Marron and Gateau turned to face the two girls, who'd done the same; the world seemed to freeze around the four of them as they noticed each other... one of the girls had dropped the present she'd been carrying. Marron picked it up and handed it back to her; a kind of similar feeling descended around the group... they smiled at each other.

The girl who'd dropped the present, Chocolat, smiled as she took the present back, "Thank you!"

Her sister, a girl with large glasses standing next to Chocolat, smiled slightly shyly.

"Are you... by any chance... looking for someone?"

It felt natural, so natural. Marron smiled, his voice soft. "You two as well?"

Tira nodded, "Yes!"

The four of them smiled at each other for a few moments longer, realising that there was a connection... the person Marron had feelings for, the person Gateau had seen... Tira and Chocolat, somehow, they just _knew of the situation... there was no animosity, despite the fact that the group looking for the person had suddenly doubled._

Gateau looked a little distant, glancing up at a nearby christmas tree as he spoke.

"I just can't remember who, though... he was..."

Marron glanced at Gateau, wondering if Gateau would be able to remember... that person... that name... that title... who _was_ he?

Tira echoed Gateau's words. "He was...."

Chocolat looked at her sister; Tira was looking upwards, thinking. She tried to spur her sister on, "Who?"

Marron was deep in thought. That person... those feelings... these people knew of that person. Did they have the feelings too? The feelings that were so strong... a sudden memory of the medical room hit Marron; at that time... had he remembered? Had he remembered and... said... his name? The name of the person? Had he remembered? He couldn't remember now, though.

"Who is he...?"

Gateau looked at Marron, sympathetic. "He is..."

He was someone fighting for his life in another time and another life, still. Carrot Glacé was getting more than desperate; the situation seemed so hopeless, but he was so determined... his voice seemed to carry across dimensions, as if he was speaking to the four gathered on the bridge directly; they heard him.

"_I won't lose! I won't lose! Gateau, for you I will live if it kills me!!"_

Something seemed to suddenly snap in Gateau's mind; he heard Carrot's voice, it touched his mind, it touched his heart, suddenly he remembered...

"He's... yeah, he's an idiot and a fool!!

Carrot spoke to Marron next.

"_Marron, for you I won't become Hakaishin!!"_

Suddenly, to Marron, it all became clear. That was the voice he'd heard... that was the voice that'd spoken at the medical room... that was the person he'd seen around the college... that was the person who he'd felt such intense feelings for... that was the person. That was his brother.

"He is... my brother!! He is my one and only brother... I'm sure of it!!"

Gateau looked at Marron, surprised. The look of calm realization on Marron's face... yes, it was, wasn't it? It all suddenly made sense... someone Marron wanted to know, someone Marron wanted to protect, someone Marron wanted to love... his brother. Of course.

Tira and Chocolat looked at each other, then at Marron and Gateau. They seemed shocked; they'd heard the voice too. Tira's voice seemed... almost shaken...

"That person... he spoke... to you, didn't he?"

"Tira, that person... he's... he's most definitely someone special... isn't he?"

"Oneesama, I never thought he was anything else... but who... who is he?"

From the other side of whatever gulf separated Carrot from the other four, his voice spoke, two words, only two words, but two words that managed to trigger off the final turn of events, the turn of events that would rip Marron, Gateau, Chocolat and Tira from that world forever. They were the only four that noticed; after Carrot's "_Tira! Chocolat!_" and their answers of "Carrot!" and "Darling!" as they realised just who it was who that person _was, something seemed to click between dimensions; Tira and Chocolat disappeared from that world, and with a "C-Carrot..." and a "Niisan...", Gateau and Marron did too._

In town, in one of the houses, the girl with blonde hair was visiting her friend with the purple hair. She'd been glancing out of the window when she'd almost seen... a flash? A flicker? She turned to her friend.

"Hey, did you see that?"

The purplehaired girl looked up from the computer game she'd been playing. "Huh?"

"Something just happened... I'm... kinda sure..."

"Something happened? Like what?"

"I don't know... I thought I saw a light or something, from the station direction, sort of... but not really... just a light, or a flash, or something..."

The other girl shrugged. "Probably people playing around with fireworks or something. Or some christmas thing going on around there, I dunno, just come back down and watch what I can do to kick your ass on this thing, I just learnt a whole load of new moves!!"

The blonde girl looked out of the window one more time, glancing around, then sat down next to her friend.

"Oh, I'm sure you have. Oh, thinking of christmas... did you get christmas presents for..."

The girl fell into silence. Her friend looked at her.

"Presents for...?"

"I... I don't know..."

On the table behind them, presents for Marron and Gateau from the both of them sat; they were un-labelled, and they'd be found later and looked at with some degree of confusion. Marron and Gateau had stopped existing in that world; their memories of that world would fade, and memories of them in the other world ceased to exist the moment Carrot called to them from the Spooner Continent.


	5. Epilogue

****

Sorcerer Hunters

***

Future Echoes

**

  
**  
Epilogue

**

"Mama, are you sure that... it's okay?"

Dota and Big Mama were watching Carrot and the others as they sat around in a Parsoner town somewhere. Carrot was ogling the various pretty girls that walked by, clever enough not to leap up and overtly grope them, especially not after Tira and Chocolat had confessed love to him so excitedly that time with Hakaishin... but that time was a time in the past; Marron, Gateau, Tira, Chocolat, they'd died, but they'd come back... Hakaishin had come, Hakaishin had gone, Sacher had perhaps learnt something about the power of the human heart, and retreated off somewhere to think about what he'd done. Big Mama didn't expect Sacher to give up, but Sacher knew that Big Mama wouldn't give up either; as long as there was Sacher and Big Mama, the conflict would continue. But that could come in the future; for the present, such world-threatening events had been averted, and things were back to some kind of order.

Big Mama smiled kindly at Dota.

"Dota... are you saying you'd rather they hadn't come back?"

Dota shook her head vigorously.

"No, no, no, no! I don't mean that at all! But... when they died... when Mama died... there was... somewhere else, wasn't there? Somewhere they all went, somewhere where _you_ went to find them all again..."

Big Mama nodded. "That's true. Another world... another dimension... another time."

"They don't remember any of it, do they?"

"They don't. In that world, they didn't remember anything from this world... in this world, they don't remember anything from that world. That is how it has to be."

Dota fluttered down to the floor, lightly sitting on the floor, glancing up at the vision of the group in front of her. She frowned, not quite understanding.

"But... Mama, they... they know they were killed by Sacher, right? And that their souls went somewhere else, right? Mama brought them back... but they can't remember what happened when their souls went to that somewhere..."

"You wonder if it was wise to reincarnate them with no recollection of their lives in that other place?"

Dota flittered her wings, before turning to Big Mama, nodding.

"Well, _yeah_... isn't that a whole section of their lives, just missing?"

"Dota... for Tira, Chocolat, Gateau, Marron... for them, it was a whole lifetime, days, months, years passed in that reality while it seemed like it was barely any time at all for us. While Carrot fought on their behalf, they grew, matured, their lives... they led such interesting lives. But once they came back here, it was almost as if they went back in time; not even a day passed here for us, but for them, it was so much longer..."

"Mama?"

"How do you think it'd affect them, them having lived entire lives that Carrot cannot even comprehend? How would it divide and separate them, and how would it affect their own lives? The place that their souls ended up was a very different place to this, Dota. It would do them no good to have memories of that place."

Dota looked back to the group; Tira and Chocolat were giving Carrot one of their usual ear-bashings, while Gateau and Marron talked quietly about their own business to the side. Dota's look fell a little.

"Didn't you say that those two were living together in that other reality?"

Big Mama noted the curiosity in Dota's voice, and laughed softly. "Yes, Dota, they were."

"Does that mean that they were like... together? _Together_ together?"

"Dota, I wasn't there long enough to find out. But... yes, they were."

"Isn't that... a bit sad? They were together in that other reality, but... not here... here, it's like they've just gone back to what they were like before! Can't you do something to make them remember that they were together, or something?"

Big Mama laughed again. "This really touches you, doesn't it? Dota... something attracted those two together in that other reality. Such things don't happen by chance... if their souls are truly destined to follow such paths, then events forgotten may just be revisited..."

Dota looked at Big Mama, smiling slightly. "Really?"

Big Mama smiled back, nodding. "Really. They might not consciously remember what happened in that other dimension, but it's deep within them. Just as the memories of this world were deep within them in that other world... they might never remember exactly what happened, but just because they don't remember that doesn't mean that their feelings, their deep, inner feelings, might not be swayed by what happened. Look at Tira, look at Chocolat... would they have confessed their feelings to Carrot, had it not been for this? They didn't even know who he was in that other world... they just knew that they loved him. Isn't that a powerful love, Dota?"

"A love that spans dimensions... wow, that's really romantic!"

"Theirs is not the only love that crosses time in such a way. Give it time... you'll see."

"But I want something to happen _nowww_...."

"Dota, be patient! Just watch them. It might be slow, but... small things might trigger their memories, enough to realise... a touch. A look. A spoken word. Something that echoed something once said... Dota, they get to fall in love all over again. Isn't _that_ romantic too?"

Dota smiled. "Yeah, yeah it is... né, Mama... how come they all saw Carrot, though? Carrot wasn't dead, was he? How come they saw Carrot in that other world if he was still in this world?"

Big Mama gestured for Dota to sit with her; Dota flew over to Big Mama, sitting on her lap, leaning against her chest, smiling as she watched the Sorcerer Hunters go to their day to day business.

"Dota... when Sacher wanted Carrot to remember Hakaishin, he spoke about how Carrot's soul was lost. Perhaps part of that lost soul went to the future. Perhaps it wasn't Carrot at all, just someone who looked and sounded enough like Carrot to remind the others who he was... perhaps it's just destiny, where there's Marron, Gateau, Tira and Chocolat, there's going to be Carrot too... even if it's not _Carrot_, then at least someone who won't let them forget... does that make sense?"

"... I guess. Perhaps it's just one of those things we're not supposed to think about too much. Hey, Mama... do you think... I might fall in love one day?"

"I'm sure you will, Dota."

"And they'll definitely, definitely fall in love?" Dota motioned to Gateau and Marron.

"I think so."

Dota wrinkled her nose, smiling as she closed her eyes against Big Mama.

"Good."

~Fin~


End file.
